
Book ^kih- 



CONSIDERATION, 



LONDON: 

"SON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STREET, STRAND. 



CONSIDERATION ^ 



OF THE ^ / jS**"*""' 

CLAIMS AND CONDUCT 



THE UNITED STATES 



RESPECTING THEIR 



NORTH EASTERN BOUNDARY 



AND OF THE VALUE 



BRITISH COLONIES IN NORTH AMERICA. 

J M 




LONDON : 
JOHN HATCH A RD AND SON, PICCADILLY. 
1826. 



CONSIDERATION, 



The dominions of Great Britain are so vast in 
extent, so divided in situation, and so various 
in their relations, that their general and respec- 
tive interests must often distract, and sometimes 
perhaps escape, the attention even of the ablest 
and most vigilant government. The internal 
oeconomy of a highly civilized and redundant 
population, and the foreign policy of war or 
peace in Europe, whose political questions are 
generally more important, and always more in- 
viting, than those of distant and less cultivated 
Countries, so entirely engross the public mind, 
that it is not surprising, if the concerns of some 
remote and obscurer Provinces of the empire 
should sometimes meet with less consideration, 

B 



2 



than is due, perhaps, either to the claims of that 
part, or the ultimate results upon the whole. 

Examples of this kind are no where so fre- 
quently to be found, as in the history of our re- 
lations with America. The mistakes committed 
in the former management of that country, the 
disasters received in making war, the still greater 
disasters in making peace with it, may all be 
imputed to a false estimate, of its character and 
importance, its resources and increase. For a 
different degree of political foresight seems ne- 
cessary for the old and new hemisphere, and 
anticipations, which would here be thought pre- 
sumptuous or remote, have there proved com- 
paratively certain and immediate, till it is now 
generally acknowledged, that the future desti- 
nies of our own country must, for good and evil, 
be principally connected with, or materially in- 
fluenced by, those of America. 

It is indeed an easy thing to console ourselves 
by turning to the unexampled successes, that 
have placed the Empire in the proud situation it 
now holds ; but if we wish to consult the real 
power and permanence of that Empire, and not 
merely to flatter the nation's vanity on past 
achievements, it would be well perhaps to look 
more narrowly to that quarter, which offers least 
occasion for congratulation ; where, however, we 



3 



may yet profit by experience, and if we cannot 
remedy the consequence of former errors, at 
least prevent their repetition. For Great Bri- 
tain still pQSsesses the most valuable portion of 
the Americaji Continent, and does not know it : 
and questions are noiv pending between her and 
the United States, by which, not only may that 
value be greatly impaired, but the very posses- 
sion eventually lost. 

There was once a time, and within the 
memory of the present age, when almost the 
whole of North America belonged to the Crown 
of England : in 1783, the King renounced his 
rights of propriety and government to a certain 
portion, which has since formed the United 
States ; but the exact limits of that portion have 
never yet been ascertained. By the extraordi- 
nary increase, as well of the ceded Provinces as 
of those retained, what was considered of little 
moment in 1783, has now become of vital im- 
portance. Of the differences which have arisen 
between the two Governments, respecting their 
common Boundaries, some have been arranged 
by discussion before Commissioners, others are 
ready, on our part at least, for reference to a 
friendly Power; and some (the object of the 
present inquiry) having been referred, are di- 
rected by the umpire to be settled by negotia- 

b2 



4 



tion. The pretensions of the two Governments 
are widely at variance, and, on the part of the 
American at least, most tenaciously maintained. 
In the present state of the question, it can be of 
little use to consider the arguments, on either 
side, in support of those pretensions : (nego- 
tiation, particularly with America, too commonly 
involves the idea of compromise :) but it may tend 
to the right understanding of the difference, to 
give a short statement of its origin, before entering 
upon the consequences. 

The Provisional Treaty of 1783, by which 
the independence of the thirteen revolted Colo- 
nies was acknowledged, was negotiated on their 
part, by the profoundest statesman that country 
has ever produced ; a man who, to a thorough 
acquaintance with the character and interests of 
America, united the deepest political sagacity, 
an impenetrable cunning, and most plausible ad- 
dress. It was not without reason perhaps, that 
he styled the statesmen of that period, as * too 
ignorant io judge, and loo proud to learn f for 
he was able to obtain of our Ministry terms, 
which exceeded the expectation of his own Coun- 
trymen, and astonished their Allies. In compli- 
ance with his suggestion, or agreeably to his 
wishes, the Commissioner first sent to meet 
him, whose knowledge and penetration might 



a 

have proved less favourable to the objects had 
in view, was recalled ; and another substituted, 
whose qualities were the most opposite and most 
unequal to his opponent's, and whom, of all 
mankind perhaps, could he have chosen, he him- 
self would have first selected, it is interesting 
to learn with how little disguise or moderation 
the crafty American proceeded to practise on 
the simplicity of his English admirer. The 
Loyalists, who had been plundered, persecuted, 
exiled, ruined, were easily given up, because 
they had misled the Government, or the Govern- 
ment had misled them. Their claim for com- 
pensation was met with demands of satisfaction 
for the damages done by them, and by the King's 
troops. Rights of fishery, which the most 
friendly nation in Europe had never the assu- 
rance to ask, were conceded, as a boon indeed, 
but a most politic one, to efface the memory of 
the past, and ensure a sincere reconciliation 
for the future. Whatever could not be demanded 
for the right of his own nation, was claimed for 
the benefit of ours. It was urged, (a remarkable 
coincidence with the opinions of certain oecono- 
mists of the present day,) that the real interests 
of Great Britain would be best promoted, by 
the surrender to the new Republic, of Canada 
and Nova Scotia ; and it was even suggested, 



6 



as a corollary to the same argument, that to se- 
cure her permanent prosperity, on that side of 
the Atlantic, it was only necessary to throw in 
the West Indies. The figure Mr. Oswald pre- 
sents, at such a game, surrounded by the four 
American commissioners, Franklin, Adams, Jay, 
and Laurens, recalls the story lately circulating 
in the morning papers, of Lord Nottingham 
among the Sharpers, one of whom reproached 
his companions with wasting their time in 
gambling with such a flat, 6 pick the fool's 
pocket at once and send him home.' How easy 
had it then been for Great Britain, to have pre- 
scribed such limits as she thought fit. The 
Kennebec on the east ; the Ohio on the west ; 
and such a Line of boundary on the north, as 
should have secured to us the vast tract of va- 
cant land between their settlements and the 
Lakes. They had no reason to claim, nor ability 
to enforce, a pretence to anything more. Their 
ally, the King of France, it is now known, was 
well disposed, both to confine them to narrower 
limits, and to exclude them from the fisheries. 
But Mr. Oswald's mercantile ideas were alarmed 
with the threat, that though peace indeed might 
be procured on such terms, a good understand- 
ing, and above all, a renewal of commercial in- 
tercourse, could never be obtained, without more 



7 



liberal concessions : as if either nations or indi- 
viduals could Ions; be induced to trade from any 
other motives, than reciprocal advantage, or any 
advantages were elsewhere to be found superior 
to the British market. Accordingly a Boundary 
was settled and described, by which a vast 
extent of territory, exceeding that of the whole 
revolted Colonies togelher, already valuable 
for its trade in furs, and which has since 
become populous and powerful, was given, as 
a premium to rebellion, to establish the new Re- 
public, and furnish, as it has ever since, an 
important part of their financial resources, and 
the means of almost infinite increase. A faint at- 
tempt was indeed made, to reserve some part 
of the western territories, as an asylum for the 
exiled Loyalists ; but Dr. Franklin did not like 
such neighbours , as he haughtily says : and Mr. 
Oswald thought it better to offer all, as an atone- 
ment to our enemies, than retain any, as provi- 
sion for our friends. It may be that the wound- 
ed pride of the Country, or Government, found 
some consolation in sending a man of this des- 
cription to treat with the Americans, as though 
the disgrace of negotiating with Rebels could be 
alleviated or concealed by the obscurity of the 
negotiator : v or was it that an Administration, 
every member of which had protested in parlia- 



8 



me nt that the war was unjust, found themselves 
bound to act in office, consistently with their 
opinions in opposition ?) but such unworthy in- 
dulgence either to the contempt, or indifference, 
or the party-spirit, of that period, has cost much 
to the best interests of every other. The boun- 
dary is thus described in the second article of 
the treaty : 

" From the North-west Angle of Nova Scotia, 
(c viz. that Angle, which is formed by a line 
" drawn due north from the Source of St. Croix 
u River to the Highlands, along the said High- 
" lands, which divide those Rivers that empty 
" themselves into the River St. Lawrence, from 
Ci those which fall into the Atlantic Ocean, to 
" the north-western-most head of the Connecti- 
" cut River ; thence down along the middle of 
" that River, to the forty-fifth degree of north 
" latitude ; from thence by a line due west in 
" said latitude until it strikes the River Iroquois 
" or Cataraguy ; thence along the middle of said 
% River into Lake Ontario ; through the middle 
" of said Lake until it strikes the communication 
c( by water, between that Lake and Lake Erie ; 
" thence along the middle of said communica- 
" tion into Lake Erie ; through the middle of 
<c said Lake, until it arrives at the water com- 
<f mu mention between that Lake and Lake 



9 



Ci Huron; thence along the middle of said water 
ic communication into Lake Huron ; thence 
" through the middle of said Lake to the water 
" communication between that Lake and Lake 
it Superior ; thence through Lake Superior 
u northward to the Isles Royal and Philipeaux, 
c 6 to the Long Lake ; thence through the middle 
" of said Long Lake and the water communica- 
f? tion between it and the Lake of the Woods 
e i to the said Lake of the Woods ; thence through 
" the said Lake to the most north-western point 
u thereof; and from thence on a due west course, 
u to the River Mississippi ; thence by a line to 
H be drawn along the middle of the said River 
" Mississippi until it shall intersect the northern- 
ce most part of the thirty-first degree of north 
if latitude; — South, by a line to be drawn due 
ec east from the determination of the line last 
C£ mentioned in the latitude of thirty-one degrees 
" north of the Equator to the middle of the River 
u Apalachicola or Catahouche ; thence along 
66 the middle thereof to its junction with Flint 
" River ; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's 
" River; and thence down along the middle of 
"of St. Mary's River to the Atlantic Ocean; 
" — East, by a line to be drawn along the middle 
" of the river St. Croix, from its mouth in the 



10 



V Bay of Fundy, to its source ; and from its 
" source directly north to the aforesaid High- 
" lands, which divide the rivers which fall 
u into the Atlantic Ocean from those which fall 
" into the river St. Lawrence j comprehending 
" all islands within twenty leagues of any part 
" of the shores of the United States, and lying 
" between lines to be drawn due east from the 
ff points where the aforesaid boundaries between 
" Nova Scotia on the one part, and East Flo- 
" rida on the other, shall respectively touch the 
" Bay of Fundy, and the Atlantic Ocean, ex- 
" cepting such islands as now are, or heretofore 
u have been, within the limits of the said Pro- 
" vince of Nova Scotia." 

Mr. Oswald returned to England, to weep, 
(he burst into tears), when convinced of what he 
had betrayed ; and Franklin, to exult, and tell 
his English friends, they had now nothing to do 
but send deputies to the American Congress ; 
a jest, which excited but a smile in those days, 
would provoke a sneer in these, but which yet 
may have tears for posterity. 

This Treaty was scarcely more injurious for its 
enormous concessions, than its uncertainty in 
defining the limits of what was still retained. 
The questions that necessarily arose were many 



11 



and difficult, and the subtilty of the American 
government has contrived to add others, less 
obvious perhaps, but more vexatious. Of these, 
some have been settled, greatly to the dissatis- 
faction of our fellow subjects in that quarter, but 
among those which are still undetermined, it is 
the North-eastern boundary, which involves the 
most serious consequences, and towards which it 
is the object of these pages, to solicit some atten- 
tion. On this side, the first difficulty was, to 
ascertain which River was meant by the designa- 
tion of St. Croix, and what branch of that 
River was its source ; for our politic statesman 
had commenced his Boundary from a point alto- 
gether unknown, to be discovered by reference 
to another point equally uncertain, a River, whose 
mouth, and source, and name, were in dispute. 
By the treaty of 1794 this difference was referred 
to Commissioners. They disagreed. In that 
case, they were to nominate an umpire. A most 
unequal compromise was suggested and adopted. 
The British Commissioner was to have the no- 
mination, but the umpire to be a Citizen of the 
United States. A person so chosen could 
hardly have been expected to decide otherwise, 
than that the Schoodic was the river St. Croix, 
and its most eastern branch the source ; though, 
if the ancient boundaries of Nova Scotia de- 



12 



served any consideration, its charter had in 
express and very forcible terms appointed, the 
most Western fountain or spring. 

The labours of this Commission extended no 
further than to ascertain the river St. Croix, 
and the point of commencement for the North 
line. The termination at The Highlands, that 
is, the North-west Angle of Nova Scotia, re- 
mained unexplored. In this state of the ques- 
tion, the war of 18 12 intervened ; and the peace 
of 1815 was made, without any further settle- 
ment of the dispute, than the appointment of a 
second Commission ; (except indeed that by in- 
serting in the treaty the name of * Grand Manan/ 
the Americans were admitted to add a new 
claim, which had never before been heard or 
imagined, and which was so ruinous to us, and 
so untenable in them, that it has been happily 
compromised by some minor sacrifice.) These 
Commissioners could not agree. The Emperor 
of Russia, to whom, agreeably to the treaty, 
the question was referred, decided that the par- 
ties should arrange it by negotiation. And 
negotiations for that purpose, it is believed, are 
now pending. 

The spirit and intention of the Treaty of 1783, 
seem clearly to have been, to establish, between 
the two countries in this quarter, what is termed 



13 



an arcifinius bound a ry, such a line of separa- 
tion, as should give to neither party the advan- 
tages for attack, but serve mutually for the de- 
fence of both, or especially of that, whose domi- 
nions were most likely to be invaded. Accord- 
ingly, having first recorded their regard " for 
the reciprocal advantages and mutual conve- 
niences of both Nations," and their design " to 
settle the boundary upon such principles of 
liberal equity and reciprocity, that partial ad- 
vantages, those seeds of discord, being ex- 
cluded, such a beneficial and satisfactory inter- 
course between the two Countries may be esta- 
blished, as may promote and secure to both per- 
petual peace," they proceed to delineate the only 
Land-marks, and to lay down the only principle, 
which in this quarter, could answer such ends, 
viz. that Chain of Highlands which should 
divide the heads of Rivers, whose mouths and 
courses were within the actual 'Provinces of 
the respective claimants. Thus the party pos- 
sessing the mouth of any stream, would possess 
also its whole course to the fountain head. 
This was obviously the most equitable adjust- 
ment, and the most natural boundary. The 
entire course of the Penobscot, the Kennebec, 
and other Rivers, flowing into the Atlantic ocean, 



14 



would be thus secured to the United States, and 
a reciprocal advantage afforded to us in the 
possession of the Chaudiere, and other streams, 
that discharged their waters within our terri- 
tories. Between two nations no separation is 
so distinct, no barrier so effectual, as a moun- 
tainous frontier; and as Rivers, in new coun- 
tries, are the great High-ways of nature, and 
almost the only means of communication and 
transport, any other division must give to one 
party a most unequal advantage for invasion in 
war, and to both, continual disputes in trade 
and navigation in time of peace. The Line of 
separation was therefore to be drawn cc from 
" the North-west Angle of Nova Scotia, that 
u is, the Angle formed by a due north line drawn 
u from the source of the St. Croix to the 
" High Lands, along the said High Lands, 
" dividing the waters that fall into the Atlantic, 
" from those that fall into the river St. Law- 
te rence, to the North-western Head of the Con- 
u necticut river." Now as no part of the 
British possessions, in this quarter (their western 
boundary being the St. Croix) touched the At- 
lantic, nor of the American the St. Lawrence, 
the principle and object of the treaty evidently 
was, to give them the Heads of the Rivers that 



15 

flowed to the Ocean into and through their 
territory $ and us, of those that flowed into 
and through ours. Indeed, the description in 
the treaty, coupled with this fact just stated, 
must be considered as quite synonymous with 
this interpretation. 

Perhaps the fairest and most intelligible man- 
ner of stating the difference between the two 
Governments is this. The source of the St. 
Croix is ascertained : the North line surveyed : 
there are some where High Lands that divide 
the streams to the Atlantic from those to the 
St. Lawrence, because the Kennebec and the 
Chaudiere, Rivers of respectable magnitude, 
flow, in contrary directions, from neighbouring 
sources, on opposite sides of the same Heights, 
the latter to the St. Lawrence, the former to the 
ocean. So far are both parties agreed. The 
description of the treaty is in these points fully 
answered, according to the interpretation of both 
Countries. But the difficulty is, that North 
Line, in which both parties acquiesce, does not 
intersect those High Lands, upon which both 
are agreed. It was in this light perhaps that 
the question presented itself to the Russian 
Government, who seem to have considered this 
circumstance as an omitted case, which was 
most proper, (or most expedient), to be settled by 



10 



farther treaty. Regarding it in the same view, 
a just and prudent arbitrator perhaps, who 
could venture to apply to a political dispute, the 
reasoning of private conduct, had not found it 
so impossible to terminate the controversy under 
the existing treaty and reference. c Gentlemen,' 
he might have said, 6 the points in this question 
6 which are undenied, may lead to an easy solu- 
6 tion of the matters in debate. Produce your 
c North line. Place me on that point of the 
c Boundary where you are both agreed ; for 
6 example, that part of the High Lands that 
6 separates the waters of the Chaudiere from 
c those of the Penobscot or the Kennebec ; and 
' 1 shall thence follow those High Lands down, 
c easterly, till I meet your North line, and mark 
c out your Boundary ; taking care, if I cannot 
6 always observe the precise letter, to pursue 
' the strict principle, of the treaty, and adhere at 
c least to its abstract description ; that is, I shall 
c include within the United States, the Heads of 
6 all those Rivers whose courses flow through 
c "their territories to the Atlantic ocean; the rest 
6 of the country belongs still to its ancient 
' Sovereign/ 

That this is the only just basis upon which 
these differences could be arranged by arbitra- 
tion, and the only safe and honourable one to be 



17 



settled by treaty, may be further approved by 
examining the respective Lines, claimed by us, 
and the United States, and the probable conse- 
quences of accepting either. 

In exploring this Boundary, the American Go- 
vernment seems to have assumed the principle, 
that if no such High Lands existed, or existed 
where they would not be intersected by the 
North line, or intersected, would not divide 
Rivers agreeably to the strict letter of the treaty, 
they were then to go up to the St. Law- 
rence, and fix the north-west angle of Nova 
Scotia on the very shore of that River. Ac- 
cordingly they pass over a high and extensive 
range of elevated Land, which, compared with 
the other heights and features of the whole 
Tract, would readily be called and recognized 
as The High Lands, but which they deny to be 
the High Lands in the treaty, because though 
these would indeed divide the Heads of Rivers, 
and give them the course and source of all that 
flow into and through the United States, and us 
of all that flow into and through our Territories, 
yet if the streams on this side empty into the 
Atlantic, those on the other do not join the St. 
Lawrence. They pass on, therefore, and meet 
the St. John's. And here it should be recalled 
to mind, that neither their Ministers in nego- 

c 



IS 



bating the treaty, nor their Agents under the 
first Commission, had ever dreamed of extend- 
ing the most extravagant of their pretensions 
beyond the right bank of this river, which they 
wished to be accepted as the real St. Croix, 
but which, in each instance, was resisted by us, 
and finally relinquished by them.* Indeed, both 
the language and the principle of the Treaty, are 
conclusive evidence, that its negotiators could 
never have entertained the intention, nor con- 
ceived the possibility, of touching, or inter- 
secting, this River; or else in describing a 
Boundary, which was evidently to pursue the 
great natural Land-marks of the country, they 
had never, not only neglected so important a 
feature, but adopted a principle of separating 
Heads of Rivers, utterly inapplicable to the 
Tract to be divided. Now, however, the Ame- 
ricans have the courage to pass the stream, and 
on the left bank push on their north line. 
Having intersected the St. John's, leaving the 
lower half to us, and the upper to themselves, 
they proceed in their course to intersect its nu- 
merous Branches, the lower parts of which are 
to be theirs, and the upper for us. They pass 
on, over a beautiful and well wooded country, 
of gentle hills and valleys, till, instead of 

See Appendix, No. I. 



19 



streams running westerly to the St. John's, they 
meet with waters that flow easterly to the Bay 
of Chaleur, a branch of the Gulph of St. Law- 
rence. These they intersect, taking the source 
and upper part to themselves, and leaving the 
rest of their course to us. They pass on, and 
when a few miles more would have carried 
them into the Gulph, or River, of St. Lawrence, 
by whatever name the arm of the sea at that 
point is to be called, and they meet a stream 
flowing into it, they have the conscience to stop. 
And here is the North-west Angle of Nova 
Scotia, and if there chance to be a hill in the 
neighbourhood, these are the High Lands. 
Here they turn upon their heel, and follow 
these High Lands down to the south-west and 
south, dividing, first, the streams that flow 
into the River St. Lawrence, from those that 
empty into a part of the Gulph, called the bay of 
Chaleur, both within our Territories ; next, the 
waters that flow into the River St. Lawrence, 
from those that flow into the St. John's, both 
within, or falling into, our acknowledged Terri- 
tories ; keeping often in sight of, and never at any 
great distance from, the very bank of the former 
stream ; until, at last, to get round the sources 
of the Chaudiere, they must turn almost to the 

c 2 



'20 



south-east, and making a considerable bend, 
join the High Lands upon which both parties 
are agreed. 

And this, they would persuade us, is the 
execution of that treaty, which had proposed 
for its object " the reciprocal advantages and 
mutual conveniences of both parties " : this 
the Boundary it contemplated and described : 
which is to sever the British provinces from 
each other, and the Canadas from Great Britain, 
" upon principles of liberal equity and reci- 
procity " : which has stripped us of a natural 
and defensible frontier, " to exclude all partial 
advantages " : intersected Waters in a manner 
to leave no question of navigation uninvolved, 
that C( the seeds of discord might be removed" : 
and planted, in fine, the American posts and 
people in the rear of the St. John's, and at the 
mouth of the St. Lawrence, (C to promote and 
secure to both countries perpetual peace " ! 

But, say the Americans, if your Ministers 
have made an absurd division, see you to that ; 
it is enough for us that we fulfil the Treaty. 
Here is the boundary agreeably to its express 
words, and literal meaning ; for the waters on 
the one side of these High Lands flow into the 
St. Lawrence, on the other, into the Atlantic. 



21 



This argument is the chief foundation of their 
whole pretensions. It may be easily shewn to rest 
upon false assumptions, and fallacious reasoning. 
For first, a continuous Chain of High Lands, 
dividing waters in the manner they describe, 
or in any other similar manner, does not exist 
in the quarter and direction they would run their 
Boundary. On the contrary, those High Lands 
are repeatedly interrupted and intersected, by 
low and marshy ground, and by other High Land 
crossing their line, and what is conclusive, even 
by Rivers. Next, the streams on the one side 
do indeed flow into the St. Lawrence, (except, 
that at the point, where they fix the North-west 
Angle, that water would perhaps be rather de- 
scribed as a portion of the Gnlph,) but the rivers 
on the other side do not fail into the Atlantic 
ocean. Ultimately, indeed, it is well known, 
that all rivers fall into the Ocean, of which all 
seas, gulphs, and bays, are in some sense a 
part ; but in questions of geography, or hydro- 
graphy, separate names are given and used for 
these several parts, and are applied in contra- 
distinction to each other, and to the whole. 
Nor can it be said that the parties, or makers of 
the treaty, were ignorant of, or averse to, these 
distinctions, which the common sense and com- 
mon usage of mankind has constantly recog- 



22 



nized, for they themselves have made use of 
them, and in this very Treaty, and more than 
once. In the sense therefore in which the treaty 
applies the words, these Streams do not fall into 
" the Atlantic" They fall into the St. John's, 
or they fall into " the Bay of Fundy" nay, they 
fall into (e the Gidph of St. Lawrence" divisions 
of water, to which those names are given by the 
Treaty, in distinction from i( the Atlantic" 
which, as it touched no part of a coast bounded 
by the St. Croix, so it could receive no Rivers 
that flowed through our Territories ; and for 
that reason the Heads of all Rivers that reached 
it were assigned to the United States. In this 
understanding the object of the treaty, in de- 
scribing the High Lands, appears obvious, its 
principle rational, and advantages reciprocal. 
If this sense be rejected, the apparent basis be- 
comes not only inapplicable and absurd, but it 
is impossible to substitute any other theory for 
so unaccountable a Boundary, or conceive w 7 hat 
purpose was had in view, what motive pro- 
posed, or what madness or folly possessed the 
negotiators, that they laid down a line, the very 
figure and appearance of which, on the Map, are 
as fantastic, as the difficulties it involves are ob- 
vious, and the consequences alarming. 

Let us now examine, and compare with this, 



23 



the Boundary as claimed by the British Commis- 
sioners. It commences from the same point, 
and runs in the same direction North. On ap- 
proaching the western Bank of the St. John's, 
it intersects the range of High Lands already 
alluded to, rising from fifteen hundred to two 
thousand feet above the level of the sea, and ex- 
tending in unbroken ridges in a western course. 
Here we find that feature of the Country, that 
elevation of Land, which, from its height and 
extent, would be easily recognized, and termed, 
in a geographical description of the tract, " The 
High Lands." Here, therefore, at Mars Hill, 
the name given to the height intersected, we 
terminate the North line, and fix the North-west 
Angle of Nova Scotia. Thence we follow these 
Heights of land, dividing the Heads of Rivers, 
leaving the St. John's, its source and branches, 
flowing t@ the northward and eastward into 
our Territories, on the right, the Penobscot, 
the Kennebec, and other intermediate streams, 
flowing south-westerly, into theirs, on the left, 
till we reach the fountains of the Chaudiere, 
where we are joined by the American Commis- 
sioners, and proceed together to the Connecticut. 
It is a fact of great importance, and which has 
been ascertained by actual survey, that the High 
Lands, at the point where we are joined by the 



24 



American Commissioners, and upon which both 
parties are agreed, are evidently the continuation 
of the heights from Mars Hill, and the whole 
together form one and the same Chain. By this 
Line we execute the principle of the Treaty, for 
we divide the Rivers, running in contrary direc- 
tions into the respective territories of each, at 
their sources. We fulfil its object, of equity, 
reciprocity, the exclusion of partial advantages, 
(" those seeds of discord,") and the foundation 
of perpetual peace, for we establish such an 
arcifinius Boundary, as alone, without exposing 
their Provinces to attack, could possibly leave 
ours capable of defence. And, finally, we do 
no violence to the letter of the Treaty. For the 
objection to these High Lands, on this score, 
may be fairly reduced to this ; the words of the 
treaty are, " Rivers that empty themselves into 
the river St. Lawrence there are waters, on 
the northern side of these High Lands, that 
flow into the river St. Lawrence ; bid there are 
also, that fall by the river St John's into the 
Bay of Fundy. Now, if indeed we are to get 
over this difficulty by verbal subtilty, and the 
most venial equivocation is lo prevail, it certainly 
appears less sophistical in the Americans to say, 
the Bay of Fundy is the Atlantic Ocean, than 
for us to pretend that the Bay of Fundy is the 



25 



river St. Lawrence ; though, to an accurate 
reasoned who consulted the distinctions in the 
Treaty, the prevarication on both sides would 
appear nearly equal : but if the principle and 
basis of the Line be kept in view, and we en- 
deavour to reconcile to them any seeming dis- 
crepance in the words, may we not say to this 
objection, that there is nevertheless nothing in 
the description of this Boundary by the treaty 
inconsistent with the facts of the Survey, though 
there are indeed other and more facts in the Sur- 
vey than are mentioned in the description ; still if 
these other geographical facts are of a similar 
nature, and included within the same reason, 
(viz. Rivers flowing into and through our actual 
Territories,) ought they not to be intended to fall 
within the same division ? Besides, what is it 
to the Americans, where the rivers north of the 
High Lands discharge? It is enough for them 
that all on the South flow immediately to the 
Atlantic, or at least that all which flow immedi- 
ately to the Atlantic are on the South side. Those 
are all the Treaty conceded to them, and all, 
which were not conceded, belong still to their 
ancient Sovereign, by title paramount, wherever 
they discharge. It is no objection to our claim 
therefore, that " the Bay of Fundy " is not 
(( ike St. Lawrence/' while it is conclusive 



26 



against theirs that " the Bay ofFundy 9 " 1 is not 
<c the Atlantic Ocean, 99 For granted, that as the 
Treaty gives them those Rivers only which flow 
into the Atlantic, so it assigns to us those only 
which fall into the St. Lawrence, and that the 
River St. John's, which empties into the Bay of 
Fundy, is cm omitted case ; still, to whom does 
it now belong ? To the King, who owned and 
possessed it years before the Treaty ? Or to the 
Republic, which neither owned, nor possessed, 
nor claimed it, till after ? But the Boundary at 
and from the North-west Angle is marked and 
described by two facts, or circumstances, the 
Elevation of land, and the Division of rivers. 
The former, which, as it is first, and separately, 
mentioned in the treaty, merits perhaps at least 
an equal consideration, is strictly pursued by 
the Line we claim, for throughout the whole Sur- 
vey north to the shore of the St. Lawrence, has 
no range of heights been intersected, more pro- 
minent in elevation, or unbroken in extent. The 
latter designation, the Division of rivers, in the 
strict and literal sense to which they would con- 
fine the Treaty, is found utterly inapplicable to 
the country intersected by the North line. Now 
if one part of the description be consistent, aud 
one part at variance, with the geography of the 
Tract surveyed, and the part which is consistent 



27 



be a Land-mark sufficient for our direction, and 
the part which is at variance easily reconciled 
with the other, by recurring to the principle, 
and to what may be considered the abstract de- 
lineation of the Boundary, why should we not 
adopt so obvious a solution of the difficulty, and 
follow The High Lands, and divide the waters 
that fall into the Atlantic from those that fall 
into the St. Lawrence, agreeably to the letter of 
the Treaty, where we can, and where w r e cannot, 
divide the waters that flow through their Terri- 
tories, that is, into (S the Atlantic" from those 
that flow into the St. John's, and " Bay of 
Fundi/'' that is, through our Territories, agree- 
ably to the reason and basis of the division. 

These considerations have not been men- 
tioned so much with any view of setting forth 
the arguments, that support the claims of the 
British or American Governments, which are 
respectively assisted or impugned by many other 
collateral reasons, but rather to discover the 
aims and disposition of the United States, and 
introduce and explain the late extraordinary 
proceedings of that Republic, For such being 
the state of the question, and negotiations re- 
specting this Boundary between the two Coun- 
tries being now pending, and that possession 
and jurisdiction over the disputed Territory of 



28 



the Crown of Great Britain, which had com- 
menced from the conquest or cession of Nova 
Scotia and Canada, years before the existence 
of an American republic, still continuing and 
uninterrupted, (and not merely the constructive 
possession of Public or Municipal law, but the 
actual exercise of sovereignty and jurisdiction, 
by Grants of land, Issuing of writs, Training 
militia, Licences to cut timber on the vacant 
forest, and all other the same duties and privi- 
leges of British subjects existing there, as are 
known at Halifax or Quebec) ; it seems to have 
been now thought in the United States, as in- 
consistent with the free and independent spirit 
of 6 the American People,' to expect longer the 
result of those negotiations ; and accordingly, dur- 
ing the last year, they resolved, " that possessory 
66 acts on their part should be resorted to with- 
66 out delay " In compliance with their request, 
the King had just before discontinued and re- 
called his Licences, heretofore granted for cut- 
ting Timber on the vacant Forest ; an act of 
courtesy, or concession, which, as it surprised 
and injured his subjects there, so it might have 
conciliated the Americans, but which, in the true 
spirit of friendship and reciprocity, was thus re- 
turned. Two of those free, sovereign, and inde- 
pendent Republics, which form the confederacy 



29 



of the United States, to whose general authority 
their obedience seems in a great measure volun- 
tary and uncertain, the States of Massachusetts 
and Maine, whose territories adjoin this Bound- 
ary., agreed immediately in concurrence with 
each other in Resolutions to the following pur- 
port and words — 

Ci Forthwith to take effectual measures to ascer- 
cc tain the extent of the depredations committed 
" on the lands of this Common wealth, 99 (Massa- 
chusetts) u and the State of Maine, by whom 
66 the same have been committed, and under 
iC what Authority, if any, such depredations 
" have been made, and all other facts necessary 
" to bring the offenders to justice ; also to make 
C€ and execute good and sufficient deeds, con- 
" veying to the settlers on the undivided public 
" lands on the St. John's and Madawaska 
u Rivers in actual possession as aforesaid, their 
u heirs and assigns, 100 acres each of the land 
" by them possessed, to include their improve- 
" ments on their respective lots, they paying 
cc to the said Agents for the use of this Com- 
" mon wealth five dollars each, and the expense 
" of surveying the same ; and also to sell the 
" timber on such of the undivided public Lands 
" as lie contiguous to or near to the waters of 
iC the river St. John's, in all cases where 



30 



" such sale will m the opinion of the Land 
" Agents promote the interest of this Common- 
" wealth." 

In the style and language of these Resolu- 
tions, it is interesting to observe that peculiar 
precision and energy of expression, in which this 
people has made such amazing progress, since 
they emancipated themselves from the thraldom 
of English Sovereignty and English Grammar, 
and established the Independence of 6 the 
American people' and ' American tongue/ 
( The depredations ' that are here mentioned 
are the acts of cultivation of British subjects, 
the King's grantees. ■ The Authority under 
which the same have been made,' is the King's 
Representative, who fixed His Great Seal to 
their grants; and these are the offenders to 
be brought to justice : ' the undivided pub- 
lic laws on the St. John's and Madawaska rivers' 
are the private estates of British subjects, held 
by such grants of the crown, of twenty or thirty 
years date, in lots of 500 to 2000 acres, < 100 of 
which, to include the improvements,' (the culti- 
vated portion,) are to be confirmed to them each 
c by good and sufficient deeds of conveyance,' from 
this generous Republic : in consideration of which 
gracious benevolence, the said grantees are to pay 
a small fine of five dollars each, ' for the use of this 



31 



Commonwealth; and the expense of surveying 
the same' (not the Commonwealth, it is presumed, 
but the estates of the colonists :) and finally, the 
timber which is thus to be there sold is as much 
parcel of the King's Demesnes as the trees in 
Windsor Forest, and by title older than the 
birth of that Government, which so modestly 
questions the right, and so delicately anticipates 
the decision. Not Captain Rock, not Stafford 
Sutton Cooke, ever gave notice to their tenants, 
with more scrupulous deference to the preten- 
sions of an usurping Landlord ; no Hue and cry 
in the Police Gazette ever described trespasses 
partaking of felony, in terms more guarded and 
indulgent. Considering the nature of the offence, 
and the character of ' the offenders/ this mode- 
ration- can only be accounted for by the habitual 
respect, which it is so necessary to observe in the 
United States, towards that description of Inha- 
bitants called Squatters. 

But if there was much in the words and ex- 
pressions of these Resolutions that called loudly 
for the due acknowledgments of the British Go- 
vernment, care was taken that their execution 
should add to the obligation. The public Land- 
Agents of these two States are jointly commis- 
sioned, and dispatched, the following summer, 
(of 1825,) to enforce their rights to the Territory 



32 



in question,, and reclaim the possession. With a 
party of men they arrive ; " make domiciliary 
visits to many of the settlers/' (the words of 
their own report,) " explain the object of their 
visit, and commence surveying the settlers' lots, 
of 100 acres each, to several of whom they make 
deeds,*' (for the consideration, we presume, above 
enjoined ;) " post up notices of the disposition of 
the State towards the settlers at the Church and 
at the corn-mills," and appoint two Agents with 
power to grant permits for cutting timber. They 
speak, with praise, of the beauty and fertility of 
the country, and of the industry and hospitality 
of the Inhabitants, whom they represent to be 
" well deserving the fostering care of govern- 
cc ment, having grants from the Province of New 
" Brunswick," in which " they have little con- 
fidence, and desirous of purchasing at a fair 
rate" a good title from their friendly visitors, 
who succeed in persuading some to make appli- 
cation to their Legislature for that purpose. This 
much is collected from their Report itself, and 
from the forwardness with which these facts are 
avowed, and the industry with which they are 
published and circulated, these Governments 
really appear to have been afraid lest their con- 
duct in this respect should pass unknown or un- 
observed ; and while we admire their fostering 



33 



attention to the king's subjects in that quarter, 
we cannot but wonder at the ostentation with 
which it is proclaimed. But from other sources 
it is discovered that the zeal of these Agents car- 
ried them so far, as to endeavour to persuade the 
Colonists no longer to muster at the Militia 
Trainings, which were about to take place 
under the King's Government of New Bruns- 
wick, offering to pay their fines, and omitting 
no means to seduce their affections ; which seem 
not to have succeeded as was desired, since the 
Trainings were attended in the usual manner, 
and a company, it is said, set out in pursuit of 
the American emissaries, and had they been 
some hours later in their retreat, the Courts of 
Law in the Province, might have rendered those 
acknowledgements to the individuals employed, 
which their Employers can expect from the Impe- 
rial Government alone. On their return, the Re- 
port, already mentioned (and hereto annexed*) 
is made by these Agents, to their respective 
Governments. It concludes by recommending, 
for the Country they have visited, ££ that two 
ff Justices of the Peace be commissioned ; that 
" a Deputy Sheriff or Constable be appointed ; 
66 and that one or more Military Districts be 

* Appendix. No. 3. 

D 



34 



"formed at Madawaska, and at a suitable time 
" so organized that they may have a Represen- 
" tative in the Legislature of Maine/' Mea- 
sures^ which the same report assures us, have 
met with the entire approbation of the Executive 
of that Commonwealth. 

Doubtless, persons were not wanting in the 
States, that adopted those Resolutions, (for there 
are in that country men of justice and honour, in 
all the offices of public, and private life, but who, 
from the nature of their Constitution, have too 
little influence upon the measures of the Govern- 
ment), who, we may believe, failed not to protest 
against so bold a defiance of national Law, and 
demonstrate the danger and impolicy of such an 
attempt : that by the clearest principle of natu- 
ral equity, and the acknowledged usage of civi- 
lized Nations, the party in possession could 
never be disturbed before the decision of the 
controversy: that the idea of strengthening 
their claim by possessory acts at this hour was 
absurd in the extreme : that the endeavour 
either to steal possession, or usurp it by force, 
was an insult no Nation could be so weak as to 
dissemble, or so spiritless as to endure; still 
less that Power, which had often commenced 
hostilities for slighter provocation and less worthy 
cause ; which, when formerly the Spaniards seized 



35 



the disputed Territory of Nootka Sound, a de- 
solate, useless possession, on the other side of 
the Globe, flew instantly to arms ; and which 
here, within our own memory, when France 
seemed to be encroaching, in fifty-five, from the 
frontiers of Canada, thought it not too much to 
light up war in the four quarters of the world, 
to vindicate her honour, and avenge her sub- 
jects. Do not imagine that such a Power is 
to be thus footed, like a stranger cur, from 
their possession, but expect rather the re- 
vival of that national policy, which their In- 
dian Allies would gladly hail, as the Dog 
who bites before he barks; expect the Fleet 
and Garrison of Halifax again at the Penobscot. 
And, finally, that the measure proposed was of 
all others the most likely to defeat the object in 
view. Why provoke the attention of that Go- 
vernment to a subject, from whose indifference 
to which we have every thing to hope, and no- 
thing from intimidation? Why teach her the 
value of the possession by our eagerness to seize 
it? Or what former question, either of commer- 
cial intercourse, or territorial right, had been 
so compromised, that we should repent or be 
weary of negotiating? Since there are two 
ways of acquiring Territory, by force, and by 
treaty, let us adhere to that in which we have 

d2 



36 



been most successful ; for though, if we meet 
resistance, we may retrace our steps, we cannot 
easily allay the irritation these Resolutions must 
produce, or explain their offensive terms. 

There were others, on the contrary, who 
considered this the language of the inveterate 
Apologists of Great Britain, and suited rather to 
their former dependence, or the infancy of their 
freedom, than its present maturity of strength 
and wisdom : who refused to understand how 
the law of nations could be more violated by 
possessory acts on their part, than on hers : 
who denied that any apprehension or argument 
could be derived from ancient examples of Brit- 
ish spirit and policy, for time, while it had deve- 
loped and matured the resources of America, 
had been adding to the burthens of England; 
and however high had been her courage, 
and successful her dictates, to the Slaves and 
Despots of Asia, and of Europe, nothing had 
yet been seen of it, on this side of the water, 
that seemed equal to her power, or worthy of her 
fame ; whether it was that history had exagge- 
rated the prowess of her arms, or that her 
spirit cowered, and her destinies declined, 
before the ascendancy of American valour. 
It was not by such temporizing policy that 
the Floridas had been added to the Union, 



37 



but by boldly occupying with force, what 
Spain delayed to concede by treaty, and doing 
ourselves that justice, which, if we are to wait 
upon the pleasure of Courts in Europe, we may 
for ever expect. Nor could it be answered that 
a different measure of respect might be found 
expedient for the King of Spain, and the King 
of Great Britain ; the acquisition of Moose 
Island had originated in no other means than 
these now to be adopted; that example was 
sufficient to prove, either that possession was 
not so sacred a thing as by some is imagined, 
or that Great Britain was accustomed to its 
violation, and knew how to bear it with better 
temper, than her admirers have supposed. Then 
cease to threaten us with what is clue to the 
dignity of her Empire, but consult rather the 
character of our own, and if you can remember 
the war of 55, do not forget that of 76, 
unless perhaps we defied and vanquished that 
kingdom fifty years ago, to tremble now at her 
displeasure, or be less forward to assert our 
right at this clay, and take possession of our 
own. The Territory in question belongs neither 
to Great Britain nor to the General Government 
of the United States, but to the Commonwealths 
of Massachusetts and Maine ; why should we 



38 



expect the negotiation of two parties, to either 
of whom we deny the right? 

Whatever may have been the language used, 
we feel assured it was on the balance of 
such motives and arguments, that these resolu- 
tions were approved and enforced. Upon which 
side the reason lay, remains to be decided by 
the event. Communications, it seems, have 
been made by the Lieutenant Governor of New 
Brunswick to the King's Minister at Wash- 
ington, and in consequence of his remonstrance, 
the further execution of the measure has been 
for the present suspended. How soon it may 
be resumed, and to what extent carried, will 
depend upon the degree of patience with which 
the past shall be endured. 

The Constitution of the United States, as the 
undoubted perfection of political economy, has 
many other claims to our admiration, and parti- 
cularly this also, that the difficulties it presents 
with regard to foreign relations, however annoy- 
ing to other Powers, are extremely convenient 
for themselves. A Treaty ratified by their 
Executive may, it seems, be rejected by the 
Senate ; accepted by the Senate, the Represen- 
tatives in Congress may refuse laws necessary 
for its execution ; confirmed and sanctioned by 



39 



the Laws of Congress, the obedience of the 
several States is voluntary and uncertain, for the 
authority of the Federal Government appears 
to be sometimes unsettled and disputed in 
theory, and, in fact, always destitute of compul- 
sory force. In the present instance also they 
can hardly fail to have recourse to such expe- 
dients. The General Government will probably 
disavow the measure, and deny the power of the 
two Commonwealths to usurp this Territory; 
the two Commonwealths will deny the power of 
the General Government to concede it. In 
either case Great Britain feels the inconve- 
nience, and the United States the advantage. 
The House of Representatives in Congress, and 
still more the State Legislatures, are mostly 
composed of men, who seem to entertain no very 
accurate, or very scrupulous, ideas on the Law of 
Nations. The Puritans of the North find no- 
thing about it in their Bibles, and the Free- 
thinkers of the South would not regard it if 
they did. 

Certainly a more barefaced aggression, so 
solemnly resolved, so boldly executed, and so 
openly proclaimed, has been seldom suffered, or 
suffered with impunity, between two Nations. 
Not that the United States have never before 
sent emissaries to seduce the subjects, or usurp 



40 

the dominions of a friendly Power, but always 
with some pretexts to excuse, or in a manner to 
palliate the intrusion, or, at least, with secrecy 
to conceal it. But here no circumstance of in- 
justice and contumely appears to be wanting. 
A People, with whom we are on terms of the 
most confident amity, with whom the King has 
been long endeavouring to settle, by reference 
and negotiation, questions of Boundary, and 
every other difference, are not afraid, nor 
ashamed, by the deliberate acts of two of their 
Legislatures, to declare an extensive Territory, 
(of which, to say nothing of the right, we are in 
possession, a possession too, older than their 
existence), to be their own public undivided 
Lands ; to affect to consider and treat its Inha- 
bitants and Authorities as trespassers and cri- 
minals ; order them to be dispossessed, and 
brought to justice ; send thither their public 
Agents to cut and seize the King's Timber, to 
resume and sell the land he had granted, intrigue 
with and seduce his subjects, supersede his Go- 
vernment, establish the civil jurisdiction and mi- 
litary organization of their Republic; and, in 
short, completely transfer to themselves, without 
further ceremony, the full sovereignty and pro- 
priety of the whole Country. The attention of 
the Public in England is so constantly engaged 



41 



by objects of more immediate, or more alluring 
interest, that it can hardly for a moment be 
directed to a matter so remote and so imper- 
fectly understood ; but in that quarter of the 
Empire, this event has been beheld with asto- 
nishment and indignation by all classes of the 
King's Subjects. In the most solemn manner 
their situation and constitution admit, they have 
hastened to send home their humble Represen- 
tation, # of the injury done and threatened, to 
their properties, and their Sovereign's rights, 
and lay at the foot of the Throne, their earnest 
prayers for protection; and are now looking 
with anxious eyes to the conduct of the Impe- 
rial Government, to learn whether they will still 
suffer their facility or indi (Terence to be cajoled 
by the fair professions of that Republic, or will, 
at last, be awakened to its real character of tur- 
bulence and aggression, and convinced of the 
necessity of never yielding an inch to a Nation, 
whose demands rise upon every concession, and 
whose strength is increasing with every demand. 
For it is indeed a melancholy thing, particularly 
for British Subjects in those Colonies, to see 
Great Britain, their Mother Country, that once 
possessed the whole Continent of North Ame- 



* Appendix, No. 4. 



42 



rica, driven in this manner, from the Kennebec 
to the Penobscot, from the Penobscot to the 
St. Croix, from the St. Croix to the St. John's, 
and now, finally, from the St. John's up to the 
very verge and shore of the St. Lawrence, not 
by conquest or the decline of her power and Em- 
pire, but through the mere address and cunning 
of a People, who seem ashamed of no means in 
advancing a pretext, and regard neither the 
rights, nor the common courtesies of Nations, 
in asserting their claims. Still more humiliating 
must it be, if Great Britain has now to endure 
from that Republic, on the eastern extremity of 
their dominions, the same violation of Territory, 
which they inflicted with so much insult and 
triumph, on the King of Spain, in the South. 
" The Americans have no conscience, Father" 
said the Indian Chief, in his talk to Sir George 
Provost, u they have no heart ; they will drive 
us beyond the setting Sun:" — and they will 
push you into the Sea, he might have added ; 
for unless a stand be now made to prevent it, 
they eventually will. 

The decision of the present question may be 
found to involve no less a consequence. For 
there appear to be four principal objects to be 
secured, or compromised, by the settlement 
of this Boundary. 



43 



First. A Tract of Land, highly valuable for 
its extent, quality, and situation. It comprises 
upwards of 10,000 square miles ; is covered 
with a thick and lofty growth of the finest 
timber; (the native beauty of the Country has 
not escaped the observation and praise of the 
American Agents) ; it is -watered by frequent 
lakes and rivers, the St. John's, and its numerous 
branches, communicating with the sea, by safe 
and uninterrupted navigation, (with the single 
exception of the Grand Falls, which may be 
easily overcome,) and flowing into and through 
our actual Territories, of which they are natu- 
rally, and almost necessarily, a portion. This 
Tract is at present very partially cultivated, and 
thinly peopled: but the pretensions of the 
L^nited States once removed, it would imme- 
diately be occupied. No part of our foreign 
Possessions offers more encouragement to the 
emigrant than this district, and if Government 
will at last be ever persuaded to take up and 
conduct the business of Emigration, in a manner 
worthy its results to the Empire and mankind, 
there is no place where it should sooner be our 
care to establish a body of loyal and industrious 
Settlers, who, ceasing to be a burthen here, 
would there add strength to our dominions, and 
in a very critical point. 



44 



Secondly. An object of higher importance 
is a defensible line of Frontier. To establish 
an arcifinius Boundary between the two Coun- 
tries in this quarter, was as clearly the intention 
of the Treaty, as it is indispensably necessary 
for our security. If the present claims of the 
United States are conceded, and they pass the 
River St. John's, or even if they reach and 
possess its western Bank, the whjole Province of 
New Brunswick lies at their mercy. Occupying 
the upper part of such a stream, the country below 
could never be protected, from contraband 
trade, in time of peace, nor from invasion in 
time of war. All the difficulties of preparation 
and transport, for attack, will then be overcome 
with security within their own Territory, and 
their descent into ours will only offer increased 
facilities in proportion as they advance. The 
only Line of division, which can distinctly sepa- 
rate the two Countries, and secure the weaker, 
as in this quarter Great Britain must be consi- 
dered to be, against the aggression of the other, 
is to divide the Heads of Rivers, agreeably to 
the principle of the Treaty, by the High Lands 
from Mars Hill. Indeed, it is not too much to 
affirm, that this is the only practicable Frontier, 
which the relations of the two Powers, and the 
geography of the Country, can admit. The 



45 



Boundary must be either Mars Hill, or the 
Isthmus of Cumberland, or the Penobscot. A 
meridian Line over such an extent of territory, 
intersecting Rivers in such a manner, can never 
exist. A division, fulLof inconvenience for two 
Parishes, and almost impracticable for Counties 
in the same Kingdom, can hardly answer be- 
tween two Nations. Between two Nations, 
having a common language, opposite maxims of 
government, incessant intercourse, conflicting 
interests, and a mutual and undisguised jealousy 
and rivalry of each other, such a Frontier can 
only produce continued collision and endless 
disputes, and must sooner or later end in a 
struggle, which, if there be no other recourse, 
Great Britain had better anticipate than defer. 

It will be in vain that the possession of Grand 
Manan has confirmed to us the controul of the 
Bay of Fundy, or that by again seizing the 
mouth of the Penobscot, that controul may be 
secured, and extended along the adjacent Ame- 
rican Coasts, if the United States are thus to 
acquire in our rear the command of a River, 
which flows through the midst of New Bruns- 
wick, and whose various branches communicate 
by an easy navigation, with almost every quarter 
of the Province. The immediate consequence to 



40 



be apprehended, must be, the case of a rupture 
with that Power, the attack and conquest of this 
Colony, and it may not be without use to anticipate 
the remoter, but no less important, and no less 
probable, consequences. The neighbouring Pro- 
vince of Nova Scotia becomes exposed at almost 
every point to attack from the mouth of the same 
Stream. The St. John's, by one of the greatest 
curiosities of nature, presents difficulties at its 
entrance, which might be easily so strengthened, 
that no force from Sea could penetrate it. Here 
then the enemy would have every convenience 
and security for preparing their Flotilla, and 
would expect in safety their opportunity for 
crossing, by a few hours course, to the opposite 
shore. Nor could any naval superiority prevent 
the occurrence, or repair the effects, of such 
opportunities. The nature of the Bay of Fundy 
renders the assistance of ships of war uncertain 
in summer, and in winter their very presence 
impracticable. Thus the natural defences of the 
Isthmus of Cumberland would be turned, taken 
in the rear, or become useless, and instead of a 
long, difficult, and circuitous march to the 
strongest, and perhaps an impregnable, entrance 
of that Province, the enemy gain the choice, and 
access, of the weakest, and in five days, an 



47 



American army from the mouth of the St. John's, 
might be cannonading" the forts and ships of 
Halifax Harbour. But it is hardly necessary to 
inquire how long Nova Scotia could be retained, 
were New Brunswick lost, or how long Halifax 
or any other Place defended, were Nova Scotia 
overrun, or how the American Coast could be 
blockaded, or even a superior Fleet maintained 
in those waters, with no Harbour for shelter, or 
repair, to the northward of Bermuda, and west- 
ward of Ireland ; (though perhaps one might 
reasonably extend the consideration of these 
consequences so far, as to question the safety of 
our West India commerce, or even the posses- 
sion of those Islands, and still more the security 
of Newfoundland, and the Fishery on its banks) : 
it is sufficient, that, without any pretension to 
military science, it must be obvious to any one, 
who either has any acquaintance with the coun- 
try, or even considers its situation on the Map, 
that the acquisition of such an advantage by an 
enemy, and its loss on our part, must greatly 
increase their chances of conquest, and the cost 
and difficulty of our defence. 

3rd. The third consequence involved in the 
settlement of this Boundary, is the Connexion 
together of the British Colonies, and their Com- 



48 



munication with eacli other. That Wedge of 
territory, which the United States are endeavour- 
ing to drive up between Canada and New 
Brunswick, will most effectually separate the 
upper and lower Divisions of our possessions in 
America, and expose the Frontier of the former 
Province, no less, than it commands the occu- 
pation of the latter. A long and narrow strip of 
land, scarce thirteen miles in width, along 
the shore, at the entrance of the St. Law- 
rence, (which is all they would here leave us, in 
this quarter, on the right bank,) cannot be con- 
sidered a very tenable possession. The naviga- 
tion of the river becomes endangered, and the 
very passage of the Mails extremely circuitous, 
and extremely precarious. The situation of New 
Brunswick renders it the centre of our Empire 
on that Continent, and the Territory in question 
is the very point of union \ and as a prudent 
Commander would reserve his chief force and 
vigilance, for the protection of that position which 
secures the connexion and support of each ex- 
treme, no less anxiety should be shewn by a 
wary Government, along the Line of its domi- 
nions, more especially if so critical a part has 
already attracted the desires, and even the at- 
tempts, of our Adversary. In a commercial as 



49 



well as political view, this Connexion has now 
become of consequence, and the course of future 
events may prove it far more important. For if 
the Union of all those Colonies under one Gene- 
ral Government, as is sometimes suggested, 
should ever take place ; or if, by any unfore- 
seen exigency, the ties between them and the 
Mother Country should ever become less inti- 
mate, or less effectual, such a Communication 
and Connexion would become to them an impor- 
tant bond of Union, and would create and secure 
a community of feeling and interest, and prevent 
their falling separately into the hands of that 
neighbouring Republic, whose power and com- 
merce already threaten to rival Great Britain, 
and to whose increase, except in the present in- 
stance, we do not know what other opportunity 
will be ever found to prescribe a limit. 

4th. But if these considerations appear of 
remoter interest, there are others more imme- 
diate, and perhaps more important. For it is 
not merely the communication between the Colo- 
nies themselves that is at stake, but the commu- 
nication, between the Canadas and the Sea, 
between the Canadas and Great Britain. Dur- 
ing eight months of the year, from the first of 
September to May, not even an answer from 

E 



50 



England to any intelligence from Quebec, can 
be there received, except through the United 
States, or through the Province of New Bruns- 
wick. Supposing the latter communication in- 
terrupted, (as it will be most effectually, if any 
other Boundary is accepted, but that claimed by 
His Majesty's Commissioners,) it may easily be 
conceived what advantages an enemy in that 
country would possess, who should commence 
hostilities a little before that period, in the month 
of August or July, and thus have nearly a twelve- 
month to overrun those Colonies, before they 
could receive the assistance of a single man, or 
a single musquet, from the Mother Country; 
whose armament, on arriving, the next June, 
might possibly find the enemy encamped on the 
Heights of Abram, or their very flag on the 
Walls of Quebec. Or if the Nation, with whom 
we have to contend, were such, as would pro- 
bably overlook this advantage, still should any 
disaster occur in the course of the war, how in- 
jurious must be so long a delay, and how fre- 
quently must succour arrive too late. In short, 
is it possible for Great Britain to retain and de- 
fend a country, from which she would not only 
be so perfectly severed, by distance and climate, 
but of the very occurrences in which she must 



51 

remain in utter ignorance, during the greater 
part of the year. 

It is not merely a Route to convey the Mails 
that is wanted, (which the Americans would very 
speciously offer, by a proposed exchange of ter- 
ritory, leaving us the left side of the Madawas- 
ka, for an equivalent on the right of the St. 
John's, and which even then would continue at 
their mercy,) but a Military Line of communica- 
tion, the means of transporting troops and stores, 
from St. John's, or Halifax, to Quebec, with 
convenience and security. The advantages of 
this Line have been already in some measure 
perceived. During the late War, regiments 
were marched through, and sailors transported, 
in the depth of winter, with perfect safety, to the 
Upper Provinces, where their arrival was very 
seasonable : and similar, and far more extensive, 
services, cannot fail to be received, or regretted, 
in case of future conflict. Such is the import- 
ance of preserving this communication, that the 
present question of Boundary can hardly be con- 
sidered in any other light, than as involving the 
question of the expediency, of retaining, or re- 
linquishing, the whole of the British Colonies in 
North America. 

It would really appear to be faintly perceived, 
or seldom considered, among us, how formidable 

e2 



52 



a rival we must one day have to contend with in 
the United States, how rapidly that day is ap- 
proaching, and how momentous must be the 
issue. At so great a distance, and comparatively 
of minor interest, little is here observed of the 
intriguing, ambitious, and imperious character, 
of a People and Government, who consider 
every thing they can claim and reach, as already 
their own, and every thing they cannot, as an 
injury to be borne only till they have acquired 
further strength. In the very terms of a pre- 
vious concession they can find subject for fresh 
demands. With reciprocity for ever in their 
mouths, they can induce us to relax our system 
of Navigation, and yield them commercial ad- 
vantages, which they then refuse or delay to re- 
turn, and seem to think conduct, which in private 
life w r ould be thought little consistent with good 
faith, to be the proof of policy on their part, or 
of weakness upon ours. Yet to whatever sub- 
tilty they may descend on some occasions, the 
boldness of their measures on others, bears no 
proportion to the imbecility of their present 
power, but seems to assume all the importance 
of their future expectations ; and as if the vast 
Countries of the West were now too little for 
their increase, or were already but the means of 
accjuiring more, we see them grasping, with one 



53 



hand, the shores of the GuJph of Mexico, and 
reaching, with the other, at the Gulph of St. 
Lawrence ; fortifying the mouth of the Colum- 
bia, on that side the Globe, intriguing and threat- 
ening for a Port in the Mediterranean, upon 
this ; at one time, forbidding any Nation to colo- 
nize the coasts of the Pacific, and dictating, at 
another, to the new Republics of the South, not to 
touch the Havaunah ; and now, at last, publicly 
proclaiming, by the Message of their President, 
that their former submission to Belligerent rights 
can only be remembered with the resolution of 
never enduring it again. (What is this but to 
say, that if any Nation will go to war with Great 
Britain, they stand ready to join them ?) Their 
attempt to seize, their unwillingness to relin- 
quish, their very demand of, the Territory in 
question, is a striking indication of their present 
aims, and future measures. For why do they 
thus covet the possession of so angular and insu- 
lated a tract, as if they had not already more 
vacant land than they can people for centuries ? 
Why, but for the injury, and insult, it must in- 
flict upon Great Britain ? For surely the injury 
to the security of the Empire will not be greater, 
than the insult upon its policy, if they have any 
argument, by which we can be persuaded, that the 



54 



North-west Angle of Nova Scotia, which France 
once had at the source of the Kennebec, England 
at the Penobscot, and the Americans them- 
selves, in 83, agreed was on the south of the St. 
J ohn's, is, in point of fact, at the mouth of the St. 
Lawrence. The secret is, that the United States 
have long found the British American Provinces 
to lie heavily on their flank and rear, and over- 
hang and command their coast. To throw off so 
effectual a curb, and still more, by the acquisi- 
tion of these possessions, to rid themselves of the 
superiority, or even of the presence, of the Brit- 
ish fleets, in those waters ; to get at their mines, 
to monopolize the fish and timber of America, 
force themselves into the West Indies, and force 
Great Britain out ; these have been their constant 
objects, since their first struggle for indepen- 
dence, to the present hour. Their efforts have 
as yet been unavailing ; nor have they for the 
future, by arms at least, any prospect of better 
success. In a few years, these Colonies will not 
contain less than two millions of inhabitants, 
who, in such a country as America, are not to be 
conquered : and in the mean time, experience 
has shewn, that with the protection of Great 
Britain, they may be defended ; except indeed 
their natural Barriers are conceded by negotia- 



55 



tion, and their connexion, and communication, 
with each other, separated, and lost. 

The future destinies of the British Colonies 
in America, as far as from situation and circum- 
stances can be probably conjectured, seem to 
promise a permanent continuance of their Con- 
nexion with the Mother Country. Or even if at 
any distant period that Connexion may be vari- 
ously modified, according to the changes of time 
and events, yet, under the names of dependence, 
protection, or alliance, it can hardly fail to be 
almost equally intimate, and mutually advanta- 
geous. The commerce, the wants, the situation 
and fears, and above all, the moral feelings, of 
the Inhabitants, afford the surest earnest of this 
expectation. The liberal and parental policy of 
the Mother Country, particularly of late years, 
has added the ties of interest to those of affec- 
tion, and left them nothing to gain, by any change 
that could be offered. Least of all can any de- 
sire, either exist at present, or arise hereafter, 
to exchange their dependence on Great Britain, 
for dependence on the American Congress, and 
submit their commerce to be taxed, and regu- 
lated, by the slave-holders of the South, or Plan- 
ters beyond the Alleganies, who have never seen 
the Sea. There does not exist among them, 
either in name or thought, such a thing as a 



56 



Party, or even a feeling, in favour of the 
United States. The avowal of such a senti- 
ment, or the suspicion of entertaining it, would 
immediately destroy a man's place and charac- 
ter in society. Their warm and frequent expres- 
sions of attachment to England, and aversion to 
American principles, would surprise a stranger, 
and seem perhaps unnecessary to a Philosopher. 
We do not allude either to the antipathy of the 
Canadian, or the fanaticism of the Loyalist, 
or the longing of the Emigrant for his native 
home ; but to that rational preference of men 
of sense and education, who having a near and 
constant opportunity of comparing a mixed Go- 
vernment with a pure Democracy, see little rea- 
son to prefer the latter ; and if the King's pre- 
rogative appear to be sometimes exercised with 
less justice or judgment, know how to distinguish 
between the principle and the abuse, and derive 
abundant consolation in finding the Democracy 
of their neighbours, more capricious in the fa- 
vour she bestows, more servile in the ho- 
mage she exacts, more unreasonable in prefer- 
ment, more oppressive in displeasure, and abso- 
lute in all. Nor should the disputes Avhich some- 
times arise with the Colonial Assemblies, be 
considered as at all involving the question of 
loyaltv or disaffection, but as the natural results 



57 



of a Legislature, composed of several orders, or 
of persons representing their powers, whose 
constitution has not yet become settled by pre- 
cedent and usage, and to which the practice of 
the Mother Country is not always analogous, or 
the analogy not always conclusive. If however, 
in process of time hereafter, as they increase in 
wealth and population, the consciousness of im- 
portance should, as is wont, give rise to feelings 
of a more national description, Great Britain 
will probably see it for her interest, to anticipate 
and direct these, to a separate confederacy among 
themselves, rather than suffer them to swell the 
overgrown Empire of their neighbours. Of the 
present policy of friendly relations with the 
United States, there cannot exist a doubt, nor a 
wish for their interruption. But the best pledge 
for their continuance perhaps, is to hold in our 
hands the means of blockading and attacking 
their whole Coast, which is secured by the Ports 
of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and an in- 
road into the heart of their Country, which is 
offered by Lake Champlain, and Lower Canada, 
and the annoyance of its rear, by the Upper Pro- 
vince, and Lakes. These Colonies, though they 
may have been one of the secret objects, have 
never been the only causes, of war with the 
Americans, nor have they been ever even men- 



58 



tioned, among its avowed pretexts. If indeed, 
by the price of their relinquishment, perpetual 
amity could be purchased with the United States, 
the present question of Boundary might with 
more safety be neglected : but if the estimate of 
relative strength and security is often the real 
inducement to hostilities, and if commercial jea- 
lousies, which are not yet removed, and the old 
dispute of neutral rights, which may at any time 
revive, have already furnished the pretext; the 
question is never likely to arise, whether we shall 
go to war for the sake of these Colonies, but 
whether it is better to fight the Americans, with, 
if we must not say the assistance, yet at least 
with the opportunities and advantages, which 
these Provinces afford, or without them. 

Of all the North American Colonies, the 
youngest, but the most fortunate in natural 
advantages, and perhaps the most rapid in in- 
crease, is New Brunswick, whose interests are 
more immediately concerned in the present ques- 
tion of the Boundary Line. With the Gulph of 
St. Lawrence on the one hand, and the Bay of 
Fundy on the other, this Colony possesses a va- 
luable fishery on her own shores, and lies not far 
from those of Newfoundland and Labrador. Its 
coasts are indented with numerous bays and 
harbours, and the whole country is intersected 



59 



with large Rivers and Lakes, and numerous 
smaller Streams, to such a degree, that there is, 
it is said, no point in the Province eight miles 
distance from navigable water. In fertility of 
soil it yields to no part of America; the climate 
is severe but healthy ; the face of the country 
level, and covered with apparently inexhaustible 
Forests of large and lofty timber ; beneath, are 
Mines of coal, lime, gypsum, and others, the 
source of some present, and the promise of much 
future, advantage. Forty-three years ago this 
country was one vast wilderness ; uninhabited, 
except by a few families of Acadian French, and 
the thin and wandering tribes of native Savages. 
At present, it contains and supports 80,000 
inhabitants ; its exports exceed the value of 
^600,000, which are almost all exchanged for 
British manufactures ; and what is of far more 
importance, give employment to above 200,000 
tons of British shipping, and 10,000 seamen. 
A progress so rapid, which has perhaps never 
been surpassed in America, says much for the 
natural advantages of the Country, the enterprise 
and industry of the inhabitants, and the value of 
such a possession. 

But there are politicians, for whom, neither 
the welfare of these Colonies has any interest, 



GO 



nor the loss any alarm. Who, forgetting by 
what means, or under what circumstances, the 
present power of their Country has accrued, 
and preferring to the lessons of successful expe- 
rience, the experiment of theories, which how- 
ever specious in principle, may prove inappli- 
cable to our condition, or produce unexpected 
results, would persuade us, that these Countries 
are an unprofitable burthen, that our naval supe- 
riority might be preserved without Seamen, or 
Seamen supplied without Commerce, or Com- 
merce secured without Colonies I and have pub- 
lished a defiance to shew what one advantage 
the North American Provinces have ever ren- 
dered to the Parent State. And were they so 
utterly useless and burthensome, as is asserted, 
one would still perhaps be rather inclined, in 
this instance, to approve the example of that 
old English Gentleman, who wishing to reduce 
the expenditure of his household, when his 
Steward presented him separate lists of his de- 
pendants, distinguishing the useful from the 
superfluous, said, upon reflection, he would re- 
tain them all, Ci Those, for I have need of them, 
" and these, for they have need of me." For 
these Colonies, we think, were not planted and 
maintained, upon merely a mercantile specu- 



()1 



lation, bat a more generous motive, to do good 
to mankind, ' to replenish the earth and subdue 
it/ and still more, to fulfil that higher obligation 
of every Government, to provide and secure the 
welfare and happiness of all its subjects, and to 
f multiply and increase them.' For however 
early or late may have been the period, and far 
or near the seat, of their emigration, they are 
nevertheless our fellow Subjects, members of the 
same community, and as they have never failed 
in any duty of allegiance, they have not for- 
feited any rights to protection. It may be said, 
indeed, that this cannot apply to the whole popu- 
lation of those Provinces, and it is true that 
their inhabitants are of two descriptions, and 
that nearly an equal portion are descendants of 
France. But so covetous were we once of their 
Territory, that we forcibly separated them from 
their own Country, we adopted them into our 
common family, and having imparted to them 
the privileges, have ever received from them the 
loyalty and support of British Subjects. How- 
ever agreeable to our future interest, it would at 
least be little consistent with our former policy., 
to cast them off now ; it would reflect no honour 
upon the constancy of the Nation ; more espe- 
cially as that cannot be done, without betraying 



62 



also another description of settlers, whom per- 
haps it would be almost a shame to abandon. 
For formerly, when the injustice, or impolicy, of 
the Imperial Government, had excited a rebellion 
in the old Colonies of America, there were cer- 
tain of the Inhabitants, and if inferior in num- 
ber, they comprised a fair proportion of the 
wealth, talent, and character, of the whole, who 
either agreeing with the measures of Adminis- 
tration, or thinking that no oppression, or none 
yet experienced, could justify an insurrection, 
continued firm and zealous in loyalty to their 
Sovereign, and attachment to their Mother 
Country, and exposed themselves to proscrip- 
tion, exile, and death, in her defence ; and when 
the King became unable, or the Kingdom un- 
willing, to protect them in their own Land, with 
a singular spirit of fidelity, as if they had trans- 
ferred to politics, that obstinacy and enthusiasm, 
which in religion had led their Forefathers to 
exchange their native soil for a distant wilder- 
ness, again came out and abandoned the seats 
of their birth and hopes; and, as no other 
asylum could be afforded, they removed, with 
desperate hearts, and ruined fortunes, covered 
with defeat and insult from their enemies, and 
regarded too much as a burthen by their friends, 



f>3 

and took refuge in these Colonies of Nova 
Scotia and Canada. Such were the Refugees, 
or American Loyalists ; an unfortunate race of 
men { for the cause, in which they had staked 
all, was unsuccessful ; and they exchanged home 
for exile, the comforts of a cultivated country 
for the inconveniencies of a wild and inclement 
forest, literally beginning, not life alone, but the 
world, anew ; and such has since been the change 
in the opinions of mankind, that the principles, 
to which they offered so rare an example of 
devotion, have become irrational, or inglorious, 
and their descendants must scarcely know, when in 
England at least, whether to avow their conduct 
as an honour, or excuse it as delusion. And 
yet, so far were they from being ashamed of 
their own fortune, or envying that of their 
Neighbours, (though they had sometimes seen 
that preference shewn to the new Republic, 
which, could loyalty merit commercial advan- 
tages, seemed rather due to our own Colonists), 
that lately when an opportunity was offered for 
repentance, and the Mother Country was almost 
sinking in the struggle with Europe, and the 
United States would gladly have communicated, 
and proffered, and endeavoured to force on 
them the privileges of Independence, there ap- 
peared no symptoms of diminished affection, but 



r>4 



those who were attacked, armed and fought, and 
all were alike zealous and ready, had they 
proved less able to defend, again to abandon, 
their properties, and a second time seek an 
asylum in some country, if any could be found, 
within the protection of Great Britain, or beyond 
the reach of the Americans, where the latter 
would cease to covet, and the former to despise, 
their possessions. 

It cannot appear a very gracious, or even a 
very reasonable thing, to complain of the in- 
cumbrance of such a portion of our subjects, 
and demand of them, so soon, an account of the 
expenditure and advantages, they have occa- 
sioned to the Empire. For had the reciprocal 
duties of allegiance and protection been as 
diligently performed on our part as on theirs, 
they had never been a burthen to the revenue. 
(But to insinuate an opinion of their disaffec- 
tion, and talk of the probability of their union 
with the American Republic, must appear, to 
them at least, a conjecture of little reason, 
or a suspicion they have not deserved. If 
such an account however is now to be ren- 
dered, it may perhaps be found on a fair 
consideration of their means and resources, 
not so utterly deficient, as is asserted, either 
in political or commercial advantages. For 



65 



For they certainly have retained and added to the 
Empire, 1,200,000 subjects, and 150,000 fighting 
men, who are posted in that quarter, in which 
we have most to apprehend, and stand in most 
need of support. They occupy, and preserve to 
us, a Country, of such extent and situation, that 
it is scarcely of more consequence that we should 
possess it, than that another should not acquire. 
That an insular, commercial, and manufacturing 
Nation, with a surplus and fast increasing popu- 
lation, had better remove some of the super- 
numeraries by emigration, than suffer them to 
starve at home, or subsist by crime or donatives, 
is a position which reason must immediately ac- 
knowledge, and which necessity seems likely to 
enforce. That it is better to plant the Emigrants 
within our Territories, and add to the power and 
wealth of the Common Empire, than dismiss 
them to a foreign State, to be numbered with 
our enemies, appears no less evident. Now we 
do not possess, nor does the world afford, another 
country, so near and inviting as this ; so inviting, 
that the voluntary and unassisted emigration 
thither is already considerable and successful, 
and so near, that the political connexion must 
probably continue longer, and the commercial 
return be more profitable and immediate, than 
with any other Plantation. Rut there are other 

F 



66 



reasons,, which render this Possession highly im- 
portant, if not indispensably necessary, to the 
power and commerce of Great Britain. It lies 
between us and the United States, between the 
United States and our Fisheries, and either in 
geographical position, or political results, may 
be found to lie between the United States and 
the West Indies, and we think it not absurd to 
add, the United States and Ireland. It makes 
the Atlantic a Great Lake, for the domestic 
commerce of the Empire, and by shutting up 
the farther shore, enables the King to dictate, 
who may sail, and who may fish, and almost, 
who may wash their hands in the sea; a 
haughty and extravagant pretension, but which 
was nearly exercised in the late wars, and might 
be again repeated to-morrow, and as it must first 
be disputed, and has already been challenged, 
on that side of the water, so it is upon that side 
we should be most careful to secure its conti- 
nuance. Newfoundland is too near, and natu- 
rally too dependent upon the other Provinces, to 
follow a different destiny; and we should find 
some difference perhaps, between giving the 
Americans leave to take and cure fish in those 
waters, and asking it of than, A difference 
scarce less essential might be also felt, in the 
premium on West India Ships, or the value of 



67 



West India Estates, in case of war ; and in case 
of peace, how are they, or how are we, to be sup- 
plied with wood and timber ? From America 
or the Baltic ? For if from either, who are to 
be the carriers ? In fact, the loss of these Pro- 
vinces could hardly fail to involve, or endanger, 
the loss of the most valuable portion, of all our 
Colonies, and Commerce. 

But, for there are perhaps, to whom these 
advantages may appear of less certainty or im- 
portance, or who are unable to estimate a value, 
which may not be measured by a more unerring 
rule, the use and consequence of these Colonies, 
to our commerce and navigation, may be no less 
demonstrated by figures, and the rigid balance 
of pounds, shillings, and pence. Let it be re- 
membered, however, that " planting Colonies is 
like the planting of trees, in which a man incurs 
a certain expense, and waits long for his return," 
and that these Plantations were principally made 
by persons, whose fortunes were dissipated, and 
industry relaxed, by the long continuance, the 
miserable conduct, and ruinous termination, of a 
civil war, and who, till within a few years, have 
never received any assistance from British ca- 
pital, (except indeed the short and limited credit 
of the Merchant). And yet, though the average 

f 2 



08 



of exports frfom Great Britain to those Provinces, 
upon six years, ending with 1774, previous to 
the war, amounted only to the scanty sum 
of £379,411 annually, on the like average for 
six years after the peace of 1783, they were 
raised, by the influx of the Loyalists, to £829,088. 
It is worthy of remark, that during this same 
period, our exports to the United States had de- 
creased from £>2,752,036 to ^2,333,643, (on a 
similar average), a loss of £398,393 annually, 
which however was supplied, and more, by this 
increase of ^449,677 to the Colonies. In 1799, 
the exports thither amounted to £1,066,396. 
In 1809, to .£1,733,667. In 1819, to £1,970,257. 
And for the last year, they have reached the 
sum of £>2,244,245. By a Table annexed, {in 
the Appendix, No. V.), the increase of our 
Commerce with these Provinces will be more 
fairly and accurately set forth. It will be seen 
that our exports thither, during a period of fifty 
years, ending in 1824, have gained an addition 
of four hundred and fifty five per cent, over 
and above their amount in 1774. With regard 
to the imports from them, it is enough to know, 
that all these exports are finally paid for, and 
though the balance against them must often have 
been, and still be, in arrear, yet in no quarter 



69 



of the world are the debts so secure., and the 
losses, of the British Merchant, so rare and in- 
considerable. 

But it is far less for the advantages of Com- 
merce, than of Navigation, that Colonies are 
planted, and their improvement valued, and it 
is chiefly by considering what the possession of 
these Provinces has added to the mercantile 
Navy and Seamen, that is, to the real strength 
and vital interests of the Empire, that their im - 
portance can be duly understood. For from the 
year 1772 to the year of 1789, (upon an average 
and medium of the vessels cleared and entered 
for the three preceding years), the tonnage em- 
ployed between them and Great Britain, is found 
to have advanced from 11,219 tons to 46,106, 
being an increase of 34,887 tons annually, and 
which more than repaired the decrease, that had 
reduced our annual tonnage to the United States, 
during the same period, from 86,745 tons to 
52,595. In 1818, the amount of British ton- 
nage in this trade, on an average of the five 
preceding years, had further advanced to 
179,317. And for the seven years since, 
ending with 1825, it has amounted to the average 
of 340,776 tons annually, and the number of 
Seamen employed has been more than 15,000 
men. And for the year 1825, the vessels 



70 



cleared thither amounted to 411,332 tons, about 
one-fourth of our whole foreign tonnage exclu- 
sive of vessels to Ireland. By a Table in the 
Appendix, (No. VI.), this increase is more 
particularly stated. 

Such has been the use, and so rapid the in- 
crease of these possessions, that they need not 
shun comparison, in commerce or navigation, 
either with any other portion, or with the col- 
lective improvement, of the whole Empire; and 
not even the United States, loudly vaunted, and 
justly dreaded, as their wonderful advance has 
been, have added more to their intercourse with 
Great Britain or with the World. For, in the year 
1 774, the exports from Great Britain to the United 
States bore the proportion of 14 per cent, of 
those to all other Countries. The exports to the 
West Indies, which are justly valued as the 
richest possession of the Crown, were at that time 
1\ per cent. And the exports to those Colonies 
were but 2 per cent. In 1824, upon an average 
of the ten preceding years, the whole amount of 
our exports was 235 per cent, more than it was 
in 74. The exports to the United States, on the 
same average, have increased 245 per cent., 
and are now a 145 per cent, of the whole. The 
exports to the West Indies have increased 300 
per cent., and are now a 9§ per cent, of the 



71 



whole. And the exports to these Colonies, on 
the same average, have increased 455 per cent., 
and are now per cent, of the whole. With 
reference therefore to our whole exports, the 
comparative increase of the proportion, which 
these several Countries now receive, above the 
proportion received in 1772, may be measured 
respectively by the following figures, viz. 4 for 
the United States, 11 for the West Indies, and 
12 for the Colonies. And with reference to the 
amount received, the comparative increase in 
1824 above 1772, is respectively as, 49 for the 
United States, 60 for the West Indies, and 91 
for the Colonies. In 1772, the proportion of 
British Shipping employed between Great Bri- 
tain and the now United States was 7tu per 
cent, of our whole tonnage cleared annually. 
The proportion to the West indies was 9 per 
cent. : and that to these Colonies 1x<t per cent. 
In the year 1824, (on an average of 10 years), 
the tonnage of the whole Shipping cleared is 
found to have increased 167 per cent, above the 
amount cleared in 1772. That employed to the 
United States has decreased 5to per cent., and 
is now 2 T 2 o per cent, of the whole. That to the 
West Indies has increased 189 per cent., and 
it now 9to per cent, of the whole. And the ton- 
nage to the Colonies has increased 2370 per cent., 



72 



and now forms 12^ percent, of the whole foreign 
navigation of Great Britain, including the ves- 
sels cleared for Ireland. As far therefore 
as our Navigation is concerned, the advantage 
now derived to us from the United States, and 
the North American Colonies respectively, com- 
pared with that of the year 1772, may be repre- 
sented by the following quantities, — 5.5, for 
the former, and + 11.1, for the latter, and the 
difference in favour of the Colonies is + 16.6, 
that is, as nearly one-sixth of our whole foreign 
tonnage is to 0. 

Before comparing the whole commerce and 
navigation of these Colonies, with those of the 
United States, to all parts of the world, it 
should be remembered, that the latter, by their 
separation from us, had the good fortune to 
relieve themselves from all the restraints of de- 
pendence, and still to retain most of its advan- 
tages, nor were the territorial concessions they 
obtained of us, more important to their in- 
crease, or more strangely deserved, than their 
commercial privileges. For at the same time 
that they gained a free intercourse with the 
whole World, their ships continued to enjoy in 
our harbours the rights and immunities of Bri- 
tish bottoms ; they continued to trade with our 
Colonies, to fish in our waters ; and even the 



73 



protecting duties, to encourage their produce, 
were a long time preserved. Add to this, that 
the war, which soon after embroiled all Europe, 
threw into their hands the carrying trade of 
almost the whole Continent, which they used 
justly to compare to a vicious cow, which we 
held by the horns for them to milk. The Colo- 
nies, on the other hand, have felt their want of 
capital, and other the natural difficulties of their 
situation, increased, both by the restraints upon 
themselves, and the preference shewn to others. 
Unknown, or unencouraged, they seem for a long 
time to have been regarded as a desperate 
gamester, who has thrown away vast sums 
without fortune, or without judgment, despises 
the little that remains. The laws of navigation 
indeed, as the fundamental rule of the Empire, 
the source of all its power and prosperity, are 
LcVer to be mentioned with complaint, because 
they bear hard upon any particular branch ; but 
this there was unfortunate in the situation of 
these Colonies, that wherever those laws were 
rigidly enforced, they suffered much inconve- 
nience and vexation, and wherever they might 
have expected some advantage, those laws were 
easily relaxed. For years the Colonies were 
unable to contend with the admission of the 
United States into the West India Islands, to 



74 



which, and to the Mother Country, their trade 
was almost entirely restricted: and it was not 
till 1809; (before which period the importation 
of their Timber was but limited and unpro- 
tected), that the closing of the Baltic, and the 
hostility of the North, compelled us to turn at 
length upon our own resources, and cut down 
our forests in America, Between these ob- 
structions on the one side, and advantages on 
the other, it is not a little surprising that neither 
the commerce nor the navigation, of this portion 
of our dominions, are in comparative improve- 
ment, one step behind the rapid advancement of 
the United States. Their exports to the whole 
world have increased, between the years 1669 
and 1825, from £2,852,441 to £22,395,463, 
and the whole amount of tonnage employed 
thereby, from 351,664 to about 1,114,000 tons, 
an addition of 685 per cent, in the former, and 
in the latter of 216. While from these Pro- 
vinces, the exports, during that time, have risen 
from £225,878 to about £3,150,057, and the 
navigation employed thereby from 25,410 to 
about 689,872, an addition respectively of 1280 
per cent, and 2610 per cent. How, and from 
what sources, this estimate is formed, will be 
seen by a Table, (No. VII.), in the Appendix. 
With regard to the civil and military 



75 



expenses of these possessions, taken at their 
largest estimate, at £500,000 per annum, that 
can hardly, we think, be considered equal to 
even the commercial advantages received. For 
if they supply employment to the amount of 
£3,000,000 annually, (perhaps the real value of 
our exports thither the last year), to the stock and 
industry of the Merchant and Manufacturer, and 
£1,000,000 more (the probable amount of 
freights) to the Shipowner and Seaman, (to say 
nothing of the revenue of £300,000, the amount 
in 1825, we believe, of the duties upon timber), 
it would be difficult to point out another way by 
which this £500,000 could be made more pro- 
ductive, or shew what item of our whole appro- 
priation yields a better return. For it cannot be 
said that equal benefits would have resulted 
from the same, or some other quarter, had we 
abandoned these Colonies, or shewn them less 
preference. On the contrary, had they been 
ceded to the United States, it is far more pro- 
bable that our intercourse with them would 
have increased only in the same ratio as it has 
with that Republic, and instead of our exports 
thither being 455 per cent, greater than in 
1774, they would be only 245, and our tonnage 
thither, instead of increasing 2370 per cent., 
would have diminished more than 5, and amount 



76 



now to 10,658 instead of 411,332 tons, and the 
difference have been added to a Foreign Power. 
And although exports to the same amount might 
have been made to the Baltic, and Timber 
thence procured at a cheaper rate, (except in- 
deed the intercourse with those Powers had 
been restricted by monopoly and combination, 
as in 1703, or interrupted by war, as in 1809), 
yet had such a trade been far less profitable. 
For there are three great advantages in the 
Colonial above the Baltic Trade. 1st. The 
former is domestic instead of foreign, and con- 
sequently of twice the value of the latter, as 
the profit by the exchange, on both sides, is all 
within the Dominions, and by the stock and indus- 
try, and added to the common wealth, of our own 
Empire. 2nd. It is direct instead of circuitous. 
Not that timber may not be brought from the 
Baltic in half the time required from America, 
but to pay for that timber, or the greater part 
of it, we have first to carry our manufactures 
beyond the sea, and bring back some foreign or 
colonial article, and principally indeed gold and 
silver, and ship that to the Northern Merchant. 
To these possessions, on the other hand, nearly 
all our exports are the immediate production of 
our own industry. The Colonial Trade, there- 
fore, in reality yields a quicker return. 3rd. It 



77 



is carried on in British, instead of foreign 
bottoms. By which we not only save the freight, 
but most essentially promote an object, which it 
has ever been the undoubted interest of the 
Nation to keep principally in view, the support 
of our Seamen and Navy. And if these advan- 
tages should still appear unequal to the objec- 
tion, so strong to a superficial observer, that 
Timber is dearer by the present system, it must 
yet be a consolation to know, that the difference 
is not only divided among ourselves, but as the 
prime cost is about the same, is nearly all given 
as a bounty to the most useful branches of our 
productive industry, the Shipping and Manu- 
facturing interests, or applied to the necessities 
of Government, and substituted for so much 
taxation. But without the competition of our 
Colonies, are we sure we should obtain Baltic 
Timber on the present favourable terms? Great 
Britain has long been, and for ever must be, 
dependent upon other Countries for Naval 
Stores and wood. The Coasts of the Baltic 
possess, and formerly alone afforded, a near and 
abundant supply of both. Why did we ever 
derive either by a long voyage to America ? 
The Coasts of the Baltic unfortunately are not 
our Colonies. Their Merchants combined in 
1703 to raise the price of the former, and to 



78 



monopolize its transport, and wc were driven to 
give bounties on its importation from our Co- 
lonies. In 1807, their Governments combined 
to exclude us from the latter also, and we began 
to enquire with some anxiety whether there was 
any other quarter of the world from which we 
might be supplied ; and what had then been our 
situation, if on turning to America, we had 
found its Northern Provinces in the hands of a 
Power, which was about to pass acts of Em- 
bargo, Non-intercourse, and War? That 
which has already happened, may again be 
repeated. 

If to these commercial benefits, already so 
considerable, and capable of such future increase, 
be added the political results derived to our 
power, from our possession of this Country, 
and the dangers to be apprehended from its 
possession by another, it can hardly appear too 
dearly purchased at the price of its establish- 
ments ; especially to a Nation, which is too 
conscious, that her influence in the World is 
beyond the proportion of her territory or popu- 
pulation in Europe, to confine her views to a 
single Kingdom, or to one Hemisphere ; which 
has not garrisoned for so many years the Rock 
of Gibraltar, nor maintained her Forts in Africa, 
nor conquered or planted many other posts or 



79 



Islands, for the immediate return of their trade 
or revenue ; nor refused to the subjects of her 
very Capital the necessary fuel of life, unless 
brought by sea from a distant port, because the 
Coals of Newcastle are cheaper than any else- 
where | but which, having established an Em- 
pire, on whose dominions the sun never sets, 
and whose equal he has never seen, has judged 
no expenses heavy, which were necessary to 
secure its general prosperity, no prosperity se- 
cure without a superior Navy, and no Navy 
superior without Colonies and Commerce. 

Inconsiderable however as this sum appears 
upon such a comparison, it may yet be well to 
examine, whether all of it could probably be 
saved to the revenue by the proposed abandon- 
ment. The expenses of the Civil Government 
of these Provinces, as much as are borne by the 
Mother Country, amount only to about ^45,000. 
All the rest is incurred by the Military estab- 
lishments, which are not required to secure the 
obedience of the Inhabitants, for that is most 
voluntary and devoted, but for the safety also of 
other possessions, the fear of neighbouring rivals, 
and the general interests of the Empire. Were 
these withdrawn, must not the garrisons in other 
places be augmented, in Bermuda, and the West 
Indies ? Or would our fears diminish with the 



80 



increase of our euemies, or dor forces be les- 
sened with the increase of our fears, or any sav- 
ing gained in the health or cost of our forces by 
this change of station? Two hundred men 
would possibly cease to be a sufficient protec- 
tion for Newfoundland; nor would perhaps the 
uneasiness felt for Ireland be any thing allayed, 
for the intimidating supposition, lately suggested 
by a Catholic Barrister, of an American Fleet in 
the Irish Channel, may not prove eventually to 
have been so very remote, as the Orator, it is 
hoped, himself imagined. Were the obstacles 
on that side of the water removed, the Ameri- 
cans know the way over to this, and they would 
soon learn how to throw 100,000 musquets into 
Ireland, which they have already learned how to 
make ; and were it the expedition of mad men, 
and fools, they could bring 10,000 United Irish- 
men with them, who are both one and the other. 
It must be better, one would think, that these 
men and arms should be sent, without return, to 
Canada, and the United States exhaust their 
means in imbecile attempts to invade a country, 
which they never can conquer, as in the last war, 
or, as it will, or should be, in the next, in pro- 
tecting their long and defenceless coasts, of the 
Atlantic in front, and the Lakes in their rear, 
(neither of which could be endangered without 



81 



our occupation of tins Territory,) rather than to 
remove every domestic annoyance, and leave 
their undivided attention and resources to be 
applied to, their maritime force, and the attack 
of more valuable, or more valued, possessions. 

If indeed the power and consequence of a 
Nation does not depend upon the extent of its 
dominions and number of inhabitants, but the 
less we possess and expend abroad, the richer 
and securer we are at home ; if the cheapest 
market be an object of such paramount import- 
ance, in political ceconomy, as to exclude the dis- 
tinctions of subject and alien, friend and enemy, 
security and dependence, and trade with foreign- 
ers be as permanent or profitable as domestic 
commerce within ourselves; we might by the 
same reasons give up the beautiful and fertile 
Islands of the West Indies, to the Abolitionists, 
if Heaven so please, for an experiment upon 
negro industry and intellect, (since there are, 
who refuse to be satisfied with the experiment 
that has been making since the flood upon the 
whole Continent of Africa,) we might sever Ire- 
land from Great Britain, or Scotland from Eng- 
land, or resolve England again into an Heptar- 
chy, and would mankind remain at peace, and 
obey the dictates of right reason, all parts per- 
haps would be benefited, and we might safely 

G 



82 

contract our Empire, or even dissolve it : but as 
force has unhappily been found the best or only 
means of securing, either the ends of justice, or 
the advantages of amity and commerce, the same 
reason that induced men to form societies, must 
suggest and compel their enlargement, and the 
greater the proportion of the earth included 
under one good government, the stronger, the 
richer, and happier, must that nation be. The 
increase of production in the Mother Country 
has of late so far surpassed the increase of con- 
sumption, that the grand object of her ceconomy 
is now, to multiply her customers, and open new 
markets. No class of consumers, it is allowed, 
is so safe, so constant, and profitable, as we are 
to ourselves ; and if there are causes at home 
which retard or limit their multiplication, in the 
Colonies nothing, but our own negligence, can 
oppose their rapid and almost infinite increase. 
Had a tithe, had an hundredth part, of the 
capital lately sunk, in abortive schemes, ima- 
ginary mines, and irrecoverable loans, been 
diverted to the planting and encouraging these 
possessions, to open Canals for example, be- 
tween the Bay of Fundy and the Gulph of St. 
Lawrence, the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic at 
Halifax, Lake Erie and Ontario, Lake Ontario and 
the St. Lawrence, the St. Lawrence and Lake 



83 

Champlain, the benefit would have been great and 
permanent to the Empire, and the profit satis- 
factory to the adventurers. So inviting are 
these undertakings, that the capitalists in the 
United States have long been anxious, and have 
offered, to perform them, but from a laudable 
feeling of pride and jealousy, the Colonists have 
preferred waiting, till they could get assistance 
from the Mother Country, or till, and the time is 
not distant, they could effect it of themselves. 
Indeed some of these enterprises are already in 
operation, and the rest about to be begun. 

To pursue further the resources and pros- 
pects of the British Empire in America, would 
be long and inapplicable to the present purpose. 
It is already seen that the Colonies, which remain 
to us, are now of more value to our commerce 
and navigation, than were all the Provinces of 
the United States together in 1774, though these 
then contained twice the number of inhabitants, 
and though they have met no obstacle to their 
improvement, except the war of their own 
choosing, our colonists have gained rapidly upon 
them in comparative increase. 

It would perhaps be difficult to mention, or 
almost to imagine, a country, the result of whose 
industry and commerce could afford a more 
unminglecl satisfaction, at once to the philoso- 

e 2 



84 



pher, the statesman, and ceconomist. Trees, 
which bear no fruit, which contribute nothing to 
our support, which even cumber the ground, 
are cut down, to make room for population and 
subsistence ; and are sent and exchanged, in 
this great mart of the comforts and conveniences 
of life, for commodities which there could be 
neither made nor spared ; the tillage and pasture, 
which succeed, supply exports of higher value, 
and more general demand; the barrenness of 
rivers and the sea is made to yield the luxuries of 
either hemisphere ; and the very stones are turned 
to bread. To all concerned, the advantages 
seem surprisingly great, and mutual. On the 
one hand, articles, which have received the last 
labour of human art, are purchased by things 
useless or even burthensome ; on the other, the 
superfluities of production are given for the ne- 
cessary materials of future industry ; the bulk of 
which is the most disproportioned to value, and 
value the least derived from manufacture ; while 
the nature of the voyage, and the size and quan- 
tity of ships for the transport, are such, that if 
they bring but a small addition to our wealth, 
they contribute largely to the security of all we 
have. In the meantime the face of a vast coun- 
try is changed from a wild and silent forest, to 
the fair improvements of culture and habitation ; 



85 



villages and towns spring up ; the poor emigrant 
is received with welcome and a ready engage- 
ment ; and with the increase of capital and 
numbers, new resources are discovered, or the 
old more available. Add to this, that they thus 
supply employment of i?4,000,Q00 annually to the 
productive industry, and something besides to 
the revenue, of Great Britain ; and add also the 
present advantages of the territory they occupy, 
and its future prospects, in commercial and poli- 
tical importance, and perhaps the inhabitants of 
no country have less reasoa to be reproached 
with what they have done for themselves and the 
empire, for posterity and mankind. All of which, 
it may be affirmed, had been lost to us, and 
worse, added to our rivals, had the Colonists 
been a little less faithful to the Mother Country, 
or the Mother Country a little more indifferent 
to the Colonists. 

From these facts and arguments, the conclu- 
sion to be drawn is, not, we trust, (in the words 
of the Edinburgh Review, No. H6.J " That it 
££ had been better for Great Britain had Canada, 
(i Nova Scotia, &c. continued to this hour in the 
u possession of their aboriginal savages/' An 
assertion which discovers perhaps no great be- 
nevolence of feeling, if accuracy of judgment or 
calculation. On the contrary, something, it is 



86 



hoped, may be collected to justify, or excuse, 
the position hazarded in our commencement, that 
Great Britain still possesses the most valuable 
portion of North America, and does not Jcnoiv 
it. Or, whatever it may be, that value at least 
must be greatly impaired by the compromise of 
the present question of Boundary, and even the 
possession eventually lost. But from what ac- 
quaintance with the country, what circumstance 
in its situation and history, what mode of reason- 
ing froin the past, or conjecturing for the future, 
it is asserted, that these colonies must merge in 
the American Republic, and u That there is not 
a man of sense in the empire, ivho does not look 
forward to the dissolution, at no distant period, 
of their connexion ivith England,'' — has not 
been disclosed, and, notwithstanding the penalty 
prefixed, w r e confess ourselves unable to divine. 
According to the view here taken, the anticipa- 
tion must appear improbable, the reflection un- 
merited. So improbable, and so unmerited, that 
nothing, we think, but the adoption of the sen- 
timents and measures of such ceconomists, by 
government, or the public, could perhaps bring 
it about. Assertions like these are there read 
with great pain and uneasiness, and can produce no 
good effect, among a class of our fellow-subjects, 
whom, if it be not our interest to conciliate, it 



87 



were wantonness to estrange, and ungenerous to 
insult. And if such were ever to become the 
words and feelings, not indeed of the Govern- 
ment, nor let us a moment suppose that disposi- 
tion to exist with them, but of the Public, or 
any considerable Party, and the opinion of our 
Colonists thence could reach us in reply, it 
would be expressed, we may believe, in some 
such sentiments as these. 

f. We are not conscious of any thing in the 

5 character, either of this Country, to make that 
' event so indifferent, or @f its Inhabitants, to 

6 make it probable. To commend one or the 
' other to your notice might appear an over esti- 
f mate of ourselves. If indeed you can see no- 
' thing in the present or future advantages of 
6 these Colonies, that may be useful to your 
6 power or commerce ; if you would add, to the 
* desertion of our Red Brethren, another ex- 
' ample of the folly, and clanger, of supporting 
f the cause, or trusting to the protection of Great 
' Britain, you are certainly at liberty to abandon 
' the Country. But, for if beggars, we are not 
' convicts, or convict only of Treason, which 

was Loyalty to you, and beggared by its con- 
( sequences, you are not at liberty to sell or 
f cede us to the United States, nor was it upon 
' such hopes or conditions that you led, and we 



88 



' followed you, hither. We will endeavour 

rather to confederate, and set up for ourselves, 
and perhaps by unanimity and resolution, may 
6 obtain from fortune, or the justice of our 
' neighbours, what we sought in vain under your 
6 protection. Only leave us at once, before your 
' indifference has betrayed our natural defences, 
' or our children shall have imbibed those prin- 
( ciples, which brought our fathers into exile. 
' Yet think us not so insensible to the name and 
' advantages of British Subjects, as to desire so 
c desperate an alternative. Let us rather advise 
6 and intreat you, for our own sakes, and for 
' yours, not to harbour such an intention, nor 
■ use such language. You are so rich, so great, 
\ and so distant, that perhaps you estimate the 
' lesser members of the Empire below their real 
' worth. Formerly the feet and hands accused 

< the body, but in these days the body would 
( appear to be complaining of the feet and hands. 
( Yet the blood, or treasure, supplied to them, 
\ flows back to you by other channels, invigo- 
' rating all by circulation : there is no part per- 

< haps that adds not something to the strength 
' and welfare of the whole : and if we seem to 
( contribute little in our present infancy, more 

< may be expected of us hereafter. You little 
' know what the United States are doing on this 



89 



6 side of the Great Lake, or what might be done 
6 here by yourselves. Believe us, there is no- 
( thing in the one to despise, nor in the other to 
6 neglect. It is in vain that yon multiply, at 
e home, production beyond consumption, or po~ 
' pulation beyond subsistence : either requisite 
\ may be supplied by us. Here you have land 
' that wants labourers ; there labourers that 
6 want land. Unless you can add to the extent 
' of your dominions there, or have some other 
6 machine for making corn, transplant some of 
' your surplus inhabitants, and with them some 
' of your surplus capital, to this vast and fertile 
c Country, and we together will weave such a 
' band around the North States of America, as 
c shall at least prevent their rising up, the mo- 
e ment you begin a war in Europe, to demand 
s the commerce of your enemies, or attack your 
' own. By this time you ought to be too well 
4 acquainted with the character of that People, 
< to expect from them, either neutrality in war, 
6 or reciprocity in peace. Do not flatter your- 
6 selves with the idle hope, that the new ile- 
' publics of South America, so feeble, so distant, 
( and divided, are to balance the power of the 
' United States in this Hemisphere ; or that the 
' population of Russia, unequal to the forests 
( of Asia and Europe, is to overflow, and meet 



90 



6 them from the Pacifiic ; nor yet that any dis- 

* union among themselves can ever make the 
6 people less enterprising, or their government 
' more inefficient. The competition and contest 
6 that is to be tried with them, there is no Power 
c on earth that will do for you but yourselves, no 
6 place for the struggle but this. Nor will this 
6 long remain to you, if the possession is thus 
6 to be stolen of your defensible frontiers, and 
6 you will continue to negotiate with the Ame- 
6 ricans, as though their friendship were certain, 
6 or their enmity harmless. For beware lest 

* you think it more difficult to stop the course of 
c the St. John's, or turn the St. Lawrence from 
( the Ocean, than to prevent the American 
c People from driving us before them into the 
6 Sea, and shutting you out from the land, when 
' they once establish themselves on those Rivers, 
6 in that Tract and Position they now claim, and 
c attempt. If you can find in our connexion, 
' the inducement of any interest, or the obliga- 
6 tion of any duty, we conjure you not to neglect 
6 this question. Do not suffer a Boundary to 
e be recorded in the Map, whose very figure 
4 will become a testimony of reproach to you 
' with posterity. Do not suffer it to be said, 
< that the Americans here treat the King's 
' Colonists and Authorities, as they dare not 



91 



' treat their own Squatters. For, finally, though 
6 it should not be necessary to repeat what you 
c yourselves must already as well know, yet we 
6 are afraid, in the concerns of so great an Eru- 
e pire, lest ours may be forgotten, let us once 
' more warn you, that we, who acknowledge the 
' same allegiance, the same interests with your- 
' selves, are beset by a People, the most for- 
' midable of your rivals, the most implacable of 
6 your enemies, and are in danger of being be- 
' trayed by you, as though you were not at the 
6 same time selling yourselves. The territorial 
' and commercial concessions already made to 
* the United States, at our expense, have been 
6 such, that these are now perhaps the last that 
' remain for them to demand. Do not suffer 
( them to persuade you, and do not persuade 
6 yourselves, that it is merely a Tract of 10,000 
6 square miles, of vacant forest, and 1 500 im- 
c portunate Colonists only, that are at stake ; it 
e is the connexion of your Provinces with each 
' other, of the Canadas with the Sea, of the 
6 Canadas with Great Britain, that you are 
' asked to concede ; you are negotiating for your 
' last possessions in America, for the superiority, 
6 for the very presence, of your Navy on its 
6 Coasts; in short, though you will not believe 
' it, for the whole Colonies, and Commerce, and 



92 



' Fisheries, of the Western World. Or if we 

' are mistaken in these consequences, there is 
4 one at least in which we cannot be deceived, 
' and which, though perhaps the least impor- 
' tant to you, may be by no means the least 
' painful to us ; It is from your conduct in the 
6 present question that ice are to learn in 
'future hoxc to accommodate our oivn. 9 



APPENDIX 



(No. I.) 

Extract from the Second Volume of the Secret Pro- 
ceeding of Congress, published at Boston, a few years 
ago, by a Resolution of Congress, and under the 
direction of the President of the United States. 
Page 225. 

" August 17th, 1779. 

" Congress proceeded to the consideration of the 
" Instructions of the Ministers to be appointed for ne- 
" gotiating a Peace with Great Britain." ( After other 
matter the Instructions state ) — " The Boundaries of 
" these States are as follow " — ( Here the same Line is 
described, as in the Definitive Treaty of 1783, as jar 
as — ' to the mouth of St. Mary's River in the Atlantic 
Ocean' — vjhen the Instructions proceed) — " and East 
" by a Line to be drawn along the middle of the St. 
" John's River from its source to its mouth in the Bay 
"of Fundy," {followed by this expression) " if the 
" same can be obtained from Great Britain." 

On the \6th of August 1782, another Committee of 
Congress made a Report for the use of the American 
Commissioners, engaged in negotiating the Treaty of 



94 



Peace, in which the following passage, at page 180, 
Vol. 11. occurs — " It is to be observed, that when the 
" Boundaries of the United States were declared to be 
" Ultimatum, it was not thought advisable to continue 
" the War merely to obtain Territory as far as St. 
" John's River." 

The Commissioners appointed, under the Treaty of 
1794, to examine and decide what River ivas truly in- 
tended under the name of the lliver St. Croix, consi- 
dered it necessary to obtain of Mr. Jay and Mr. Adams, 
two of the Plenipotentiaries on the part of the United 
States in 1783, all the information in their power. 
Mr. Adams, then President of the United States, was 
accordingly examined, under oath, before the Commis- 
sioners, and the second interrogation put, was 

" What Rivers were claimed to, or talked of, by the 
Commissioners, " ( viz. who negotiated the Treaty of 
1783,) " on either side, as a proposed Boundary, and 
" for what reason ? 

" Answer. The British Commissioners first claimed 
" to Piscatawa, then to Kennebec, then to Penobscot, 
" and at length to St. Croix, as marked on Mitchell's 
" Map. One of the American Ministers at first pro- 
" posed the River St. John's, as marked on Mitchell's 
" Map ; but his colleagues showing, that as the St. 
*' Croix was the River mentioned in the Charter of 
" Massachusetts Bay, they could not justify insisting 
" on the St. John's as the ultimatum, he agreed with 
" them to adhere to the Charter of Massachusett's 
" Bay." 

(Taken from the New York Albion.) 




MAP 



23b." True _j3/run<lary cuu7ne£. dy cites UruTrtd Stalf 



95 



(No. III.) 

The joint Address of the Council and House of Assem- 
bly of New Brunswick respecting the Boundary be- 
tween that Province and the United States. 

" To the King's most excellent Majesty, 

" The joint Address of your Majesty's Council and 
House of Assembly, of the Province of New Bruns- 
wick, in General Assembly, 

" Most humbly sheweth, 

u That the Council and House of Assembly view with 
great surprise and concern the recent attempts made by 
the Governments of Massachusetts and Maine to disturb 
the possession of your Majesty, and the jurisdiction of 
this Province, in a Tract of Country on the Saint John 
and Madawaska Rivers. 

" They beg leave humbly to represent to your Ma- 
jesty that the Inhabitants of this Tract of Country, so 
far as it is settled, are, with the exception of a few Per- 
sons, who have lately become Settlers, French Acadians, 
and their descendants, the first of whom removed thi- 
ther from the lower parts of the Country, soon after the 
Treaty of 1783, and the immediately subsequent erec- 
tion of this Province, under the full faith that they 
were planting themselves upon British Territory. That 
grants of their lands were at the beginning of the set- 
tlement made to the Settlers under the Great Seal of 
this Province. That Militia Companies were organized 
in this settlement by General Carleton, the first 
Governor of this Province, at so early a period as the 
year 1786. That Magistrates and Parish Officers have 
been from time to time appointed there under the laws 
and Institutions of this Province, and the process of 
your Majesty's Courts in this Province has uniformly 
run thither. That the Inhabitants vote at elections for 
the County of York in this Province, and that all the 
powers of sovereignty and jurisdiction have in fact been 



96 



exercised by the constituted authorities of this Province, 
throughout the whole of this Tract of Country border- 
ing on the Saint John and Madawaska Rivers, in the 
same manner as in any other part of the Province with- 
out question or disturbance quite up to the period of 
the Treaty of Ghent in the year 1814, and from thence 
until the recent attempts at interference, which it is the 
present object of the Council and House of Assembly 
to represent to your Majesty. 

" It is well known that this Tract of Country is in- 
cluded in a claim to a much larger extent made by the 
Government of the United States, before the Com- 
mission that was established under the fifth article of 
the Treaty of Ghent, for settling the Boundary in this 
quarter, and was also claimed on the part of your Ma- 
jesty, before the same Commission, as belonging to your 
Majesty. It would be out of place on the present oc- 
casion to enter upon the grounds upon which the claim 
on the part of your Majesty may be supported, but as 
in some official documents which have emanated from 
the Governments of Maine and Massachusetts, it seems 
to be held out that your Majesty is claiming a part of 
the Territory of those States, to the cession of which 
their consent must be obtained, it is proper to remark 
that the question of right between the two Governments 
must be determined by the Provisions of the Treaty of 
1783, which prescribes the line of demarcation, and 
that if what your Majesty claims as' your just and un- 
doubted right according to the true construction of that 
Treaty be finally confirmed, the Tract of Country now 
in question does not and never did de jure form a part 
of Massachusetts or of Maine, as de facto it is not and 
never has been in the possession or under the jurisdic- 
tion of either of those States. 

** The Council and House of Assembly conceive that 
upon every principle of Justice, and from a due regard 
to the friendly understanding happily subsisting be- 
tween the two Countries, the possession and actual ex- 
ercise of jurisdiction, which existed at the time of 
making the Treaty of Ghent, the instrument which pro- 
vided for a decision of any conflicting claims between 
the two nations in this quarter, should have remained 
sacred and inviolate until that decision may take place. 



97 



The Government of this Province has done no more than 
to exercise the ordinary powers of Sovereignty and 
jurisdiction, to which it succeeded on the first erec- 
tion of the Province in the year 1784, and to which it 
has ever since been accustomed, and it was in this 
ordinary exercise of those powers that the Licences to 
cut Pine Timber, which have been so much complained 
of by the Governments of Maine and Massachusetts 
were issued — upon these complaints being conveyed to 
your Majesty by the General Government of the United 
States, your Majesty's Government, with that spirit of 
conciliation towards the United States which it has 
uniformly exhibited, directed the Government of this 
Province to abstain from granting Licences to cut Tim- 
ber on the Territory claimed by that power, This dis- 
position to remove grounds of complaint, and prevent 
causes of collision, having been thus evinced by your 
Majesty, the Council and House of Assembly feel them- 
selves imperatively called upon to represent to your 
Majesty the doings of Public Agents of the Govern- 
ments of the United States, and of the States of Maine 
and Massachusetts of late years within this Territory, 
thus being in the actual possession and under the 
jurisdiction and Laws of this Province. 

" In the year 1820, the Marshal of the District of 
Maine, professing to Act under a Law of the United 
States, commissioned an assistant to go into the above 
mentioned French Settlement, commonly known by the 
name of the Madawaska Settlement, and there take an 
enumeration of the Inhabitants, as being within the 
said District. This enumeration was accordingly made, 
and the Inhabitants of this Settlement included in the 
public returns, as Citizens of the United States, and 
part of the Inhabitants of Maine. 

<e In the year 1821, a Senator of the State of Maine, 
professing to act as an Agent of the Government of 
that State, came into this Province, and seized and 
marked a quantity of Pine Timber, lying in the River 
St. John, within our acknowledged Boundaries, far 
below the Line claimed by the United States, as having 
been cut on the River Restook, in the Territory of the 
United States ; (the place where this Timber was alleged 
to have been cut, being part of the Territory in dispute 

H 



98 



between the two Governments,) and induced the persons 
who had this Timber in possession, to give obligations 
for paying- certain sums of money therefore to the Go- 
vernment of Maine. 

" In the last year, 1825, the Governments of the 
States of Massachusetts and Maine, appear deliberately 
to have adopted measures to subvert your Majesty's 
actual possession and jurisdiction, in all that part of 
the Territory claimed by the United States, which lies 
on the St. John and Madawaska Rivers. By Resolves 
of the Legislatures of those States, which have been 
published to the world, Land Agents were authorized to 
convey to the Settlers in this Territory by good and 
sufficient Deeds, one hundred Acres each, of the Land 
by them possessed, to include their improvements on 
their respective Lots, for a certain sum to be paid for 
the use of the said States. These Settlers, let it be 
remembered, are your Majesty's Subjects, the Lands 
thus by them possessed, are held by Grants from the 
Crown, and these Lands and the Inhabitants upon 
them, whose number now exceeds fifteen hundred souls, 
have been under your Majesty's protection and Sove- 
reignty, and been governed in quiet by the Laws of this 
Province for the last forty years. The Land Agents of 
the States above mentioned, appear by their own shew- 
ing, in a Report which has also been published to the 
world, to have zealously executed their Commission. 
Early in the month of October last, they proceeded to 
the Settlement in question, commenced surveying the 
Settlers' Lots, to several of whom they made deeds in 
conformity to the above mentioned Resolves of the Le- 
gislatures of the two States, and finding there was not 
then time to complete their Surveys, deemed it suffi- 
cient to make a few Deeds, and then post up Notices 
of the disposition of the State towards the Settlers, at 
the Catholic Church, and at the Grist Mills in the 
before mentioned Settlement, of your Majesty's Sub- 
jects at Madawaska, now under the jurisdiction and 
Laws of this Province. They acknowledge having been 
informed, that the Permits from the Government of this 
Province to cut Pine Timber, for the approaching 
winter, had been withdrawn, and reciprocate this Act 
of moderation and forbearance on the part of your Ma- 



99 



jesty's Government, by appointing an Agent at Mada- 
waska, and another at the Restook, with power to 
grant permits to cut Pine Timber, on the same dis- 
puted Territory, which they affect to consider their 
own soil, and upon which your Majesty has desisted 
from exercising this accustomed right of Sovereignty 
while the question of Boundary remains undecided, at 
the express instance of the Government of the United 
States. They make what they call domiciliary visits 
to many of the Settlers, to whom they explain the 
objects of their visit to the Country, whom they state 
to have expressed great delight at the prospect of being 
received into the family of Maine, to have little confi- 
dence in the value of their Grants, and to have made 
application to the Legislatures of those States for ob- 
taining Deeds of all the Lands they have in possession, 
these Agents being authorized to convey only one hun- 
dred acres to each Settler, — not contented with these 
measures in the disputed Territory, they proceed down 
the River St. John, into the acknowledged and unques- 
tioned Territory of your Majesty, and there sound the 
dispositions of your Majesty's Subjects, to become 
Citizens of the United States, upon a scheme of ex- 
change of Territory which they profess to set forth, and 
they report to the Governments under which they Act, 
that the greater part of these Inhabitants would be 
well pleased with the exchange. On their return to 
their own Country, they recommend to the Governor 
of the State of Maine, and state it to have been ap- 
proved of by him, that two Justices of the Peace be 
commissioned, that a deputy Sheriff or Constable be 
appointed, that one or more Military districts be formed 
at Madawaska, and at a suitable time be so organized 
that they may have a Representative in the Legislature 
of Maine, that authority be granted to sell to the 
Madawaska Settlers, the Land they have in possession 
more than one hundred Acres, for a reasonable consi- 
deration, and that a bushed winter road be cut from 
the head waters of the Penobscot, in a direction near 
the head of the Restook, and continued to Madawaska 
or Fish River, the Tract of Country through which this 
proposed road is to pass, being also a part of the dis- 
puted Territory before referred to. 

h 2 



100 

" All this appears by a document published in the 
American Newspapers, purporting to be the official 
* Report of the Agent of the Land Office' of Massa- 
chusetts, and dated, ' Land Office, Boston, November 
10th, 1825.' 

" It might have been added, because it is a well 
known fact, which has been verified on oath, that these 
Agents also endeavoured to persuade the Inhabitants of 
Madawaska not to attend a Militia training then about 
to be held under the Laws of this Province, and offered 
to some of them, if they would not attend, to pay any 
fines that might be recovered against them for their 
delinquency. This attempt however was unavailing, 
for the General Training was held on the fourth of 
October last, in the Settlement of Madawaska, and up- 
wards of three hundred men under forty-five years of 
age were present at it : And the Council and Assembly 
are well persuaded, that all the other attempts of these 
Land Agents to seduce your Majesty's Subjects in this 
quarter, from their allegiance, and to shake their faith 
in their titles to their Lands, and in your Majesty's 
support and protection, were equally ineffectual. 

" Nevertheless the Council and House of Assembly 
cannot view these proceedings of the Governments of 
the States of Massachusetts and Maine, and of their 
authorized Agents, without great regret and alarm. 
They cannot reconcile them to those principles of mode- 
ration and equity, which have induced the two nations 
of late years so often to refer their differences, as well 
with regard to disputed points of Boundary, as toother 
matters of high import, to tribunals of their own selec- 
tion for amicable adjustment, nor to that spirit of 
courtesy and conciliation which ought always to subsist 
between friendly powers. 

" Had any Peace Officers of this Province detected 
these Land Agents in the course of the proceedings 
above detailed, it would have been their unquestionable 
duty to have secured their persons, and to have brought 
them before the proper municipal Tribunal in this Pro- 
vince, for an infraction of your Majesty's Sovereignty 
in places under its actual exercise. For although your 
Majesty has thought proper to abstain from granting 
Licences to your Subjects to cut Timber on the wilder- 



101 



ness Lands claimed by the United States, the Coun- 
cil and House of Assembly have not understood that 
your Majesty has abandoned or means to abandon, 
under present circumstances, any rights of practical 
Sovereignty which your Majesty has been accustomed 
to exercise in any parts of the disputed Territory, which 
have been, and now are, in fact, occupied and held as 
British Settlements, and under your Majesty's jurisdic- 
tion. In consequence of a remonstrance made by the 
Lieutenant Governor of this Province to your Majesty's 
Minister at Washington, and by him conveyed to the 
Government of the United States, the Legislature of 
Massachusetts appears to have suspended the execu- 
tion of the Resolves above mentioned, until their Ses- 
sion in the month of June next. But should these 
Resolves, or the additional measures recommended by 
the Land Agents of the two States, be attempted to 
be put in force while the question of Boundary remains 
unsettled, it may be confidently asserted that the Go- 
vernment of this Province will not tamely surrender 
the Sovereignty which has been uniformly exercised in 
the Territory in question, and the most unpleasant colli- 
sions may be expected to ensue. 

" While the Council and House of Assembly deeply 
feel the importance of a speedy settlement of this dis- 
puted Boundary, they can by no means accede to the 
proposition for an adjustment made by the Land Agents 
of the States of Massachusetts and Maine, in the report 
above alluded to in what they term an exchange of Ter- 
ritory, by leaving to your Majesty all the Lands lying 
North Eastward of the Rivers Saint John and Mada- 
waska, and taking "for the United States a portion of 
Territory, on the west side of the River Saint John as far 
down as Eel River, far below the line now claimed by 
the United States. This would be to vary both the Line 
and the principle of Boundary in this quarter as desig- 
nated in the Treaty of 1783. There is moreover en- 
grafted on this proposition a right to the free Navigation 
and use of the River St. John to its mouth, and such a 
compromise it is stated would be for the mutual advan- 
tage of the two Nations. 

" The Council and House of Assembly humbly con- 
ceive that the inconveniences and disadvantages to your 



102 



Majesty's Interests of a River Boundary have been al- 
ready so much experienced in other parts of your Ma- 
jesty's North American Dominions, as to render it alto- 
gether inexpedient to adopt such a Boundary in this 
quarter, especially if the consequence is to be that a Fo- 
reign nation is to have a free right of navigation f a 
Great River lying altogether within your Majesty's Ter- 
ritories for a distance of near two hundred miles down to 
its mouth in the Bay of Fundy, and to a coast navigation 
from thence along your Majesty's Territories for a dist- 
ance of sixty miles further until it meets its own sea 
board. The facilities for illicit trade, the exposure of 
frontier in a Military view, and the controulof the com- 
munications between your Majesty's Provinces, which 
such an arrangement would afford to a Foreign Power, 
are in addition to the relinquishment of a large portion 
of very valuable Territory, most cogent reasons against 
adopting it. The Council and House of Assembly on 
the contrary entertain the most sanguine hope, that your 
Majesty's Government will maintain the true principle 
on which the designation of Boundary in this quarter in 
the Treaty of 1783 was founded, namely, to leave within 
the Territories of the respective powers, the whole course 
of those Great Rivers, quite up to their sources, which 
have their mouths within the same Territories. This is 
a principle in full accordance with that spirit of recipro- 
cal advantage and mutual convenience, which was the 
declared object of the provisional articles of Peace after- 
wards framed into the Treaty of 1 783, which will make 
the line of Boundary to be a substantial separation be- 
tween the two distinct nations, will prevent that constant 
contact between their respective subjects that inevitably 
leads to dissension and difficulty, and will tend more 
than any one circumstance that can be named to preserve 
the integrity of your Majesty's remaining North Ameri- 
can Colonies. 

" The Council and House of Assembly beg leave with 
great humility to lay this representation at the foot of the 
Throne. They cherish with undiminished confidence the 
persuasion that your Majesty will continue to bestow 
that gracious attention and regard to the rights and in- 
terests of your North American Dominions for which 
they have hitherto had so much reason to be grateful." 



103 



(No. IV.) 

The Report of one of the American Agents to his 
Government. 

' Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
Land Office, Boston, Nov. 10, 1825. 

May it please your Excellency. 
The Legislature of this Commonwealth passed several 
resolves, dated 16th Eebruary, and 11th June last, in 
concurrence with resolves of the Legislature of the State 
of Maine, by which it was made my duty, in conjunc- 
tion with the Land Agent of the State of Maine, " forth- 
with to take effectual measures to ascertain the extent of 
the depredations committed on the lands belonging to 
this Commonwealth and the State of Maine, by whom 
the same have been committed, and under what autho- 
rity, if any, such depredations have been made, and all 
other facts necessary to bring the offenders to justice, 
also to make and execute good and sufficient deeds, con- 
veying to the Settlers on the undivided public lands on 
the St. John and Madawaska Rivers in actual possession 
as aforesaid, their heirs and assigns, 100 acres each, of 
the land by them possessed to include their improve- 
ments on their respective lots, they paying to the said 
Agents for the use of this Commonwealth, five dollars 
each, and the expense of surveying the same. And also 
to sell the timber on such of the undivided public Lands, 
as lie contiguous to, and near to the waters of the river 
St. John, in all cases where such sale will, in the opinion 
of the Land Agent, promote the interest of this Gam- 
mon wealth." 

In obedience to, and in pursuance of said resolves, and 
in consequence of the claim made by the Province of 
New Brunswick to a large portion of the State of Maine, 
and granting permits to sundry persons to cut timber, 
and have, and still are exercising jurisdictional powers 
over the territory and inhabitants residing north of Mars- 
hill, it was thought expedient to make inquiries relative 



104 



lo the facts, and that some possessory acts on the part 
of the two States should be resorted to without delay. 
The agent aforesaid took measures in the first place to 
ascertain whether any timber had been cut encroaching 
upon the territory of Maine, and if so, by whom, and 
under what authority. We ascertained from the lumber- 
ers themselves that a large amount of timber had been 
taken over our line, by permits issued from the Surveyor 
General's Office of the Province of New Brunswick, the 
names of the persons having said Permits, and the 
amount they have cut. We also learned that Permits 
were issued for the approaching winter. Under these 
circumstances, and to carry into effect the other resolves, 
it was necessary that we should make a journey to that 
section of the country. Accordingly, by agreement, I 
accompanied General Irish, the Land Agent for the State 
of Maine, the beginning of September to Bangor, where 
we engaged two men to take a batteau up Penobscot, 
Matawamkeag, and Barkenhegan Rivers, and over 
Schoodic Lake to Woodstock, on St. John River, and 
there remain our arrival. We proceeded to Fredericton 
by the way of Eastport and St. John City. When at 
Fredericton, we called at the Surveyor General's Office, 
and stated to him we wished to obtain some documents 
from his office, relative to permits granted for cutting 
timber upon the Arcostook and Madawaski rivers, to 
which he replied that he could not furnish such docu- 
ments without first consulting the Governor, who was 
then absent on a journey, and would not return for seve- 
ral days. We observed to him, that perhaps when we 
explained to him more particularly what we wanted, he 
would not think it necessary to advise with the Gover- 
nor, and if he would name an hour that day or the next, 
we would attend ; he however declined acting until he 
had seen the Governor. We made a written communi- 
cation, stating the substance of our request, and that we 
were going up the river and would call at his office for 
an answer on our return. We then proceeded up river 
to Woodstock, where we found our boatmen, and after 
all things were in readiness, we continued up river, and 
about twenty miles below Madawaska river we met a 
Mr. Baker in a lumber boat coming down. Mr. Baker 
formerly lived in Bingham, but now resides at his Mills 



105 



at Marymiticook, fourteen miles above Madawaska 
river ; he finding out our business, left his boat and fol- 
lowed us up, and overtook us a little above Madawaska 
river, and continued with us up to his place at Marymi- 
ticook. He is an intelligent man, we received from him 
much valuable information as to the courses, distances 
and forms of the lakes, rivers, 8cc. — also relative to per- 
mits granted by the Province of New Brunswick for cut- 
ting timber, and with the names, dispositions and cus- 
toms of the Madawaska settlers. He informed us there 
were eight or ten families, most of whom came from the 
States, now residing at Fish river, about twenty miles 
above his residence, and that Wilmot and Peters, mer- 
chants of Fredericton, were now building mills at the 
mouth of said river. We did not conceive it to be ne- 
cessary for us to go up further — we commenced surveying 
the settlers' lots of one hundred acres each, to several of 
whom we have made deeds in conformity to said re- 
solves, but to survey all the lots in the possession of the 
settlers, would have employed our time till mid winter ; 
we thought therefore, it would be quite sufficient to make 
a few deeds, and then post up public notices of the dis- 
position of the State towards the settlers, which we did 
at the Catholic Church and at the Grist Mills ; these 
notices will probably be seen by most of the settlers. 

The water in the several rivers and streams being low, 
much more so than was ever known before by the oldest 
inhabitants, and diminishing daily, we concluded it would 
not be possible for us to return by the way of Matewam- 
keag River as we had intended, we therefore gave our 
boatmen ten days supplies of provisions, with instruc- 
tions to go up to Fish River, and from thence cross over 
to Bangor by the head waters of the Penobscot River, 
and make a critical examination of the country, noting 
the streams, lakes and rivers, and generally all the infor- 
mation in relation to that section, that came to their 
knowledge. 

We then took Mr. Baker into our Batteau, and pro- 
ceeded down to St. John river, making domiciliary visits 
to many of the settlers, with whom we conversed and ex- 
plained the objects of our visit; they all expressed great 
satisfaction and delight at the prospect of being received 
into the family of Maine, and were ready to take deeds 



106 



of their lots, but most of them have in possession from 
four to six hundred acres, and are desirous of purchasing 
at a fair rate sufficient to cover their possessions ; they 
have accordingly made applications to be submitted to 
the Legislature for that purpose. The Eastern boundary 
line crosses the St. John river about two miles above the 
grand falls — from the line to the Madawaska river is 
about thirty miles, the settlers are situated from eighty 
to one hundred rods apart, on each side of the river, 
nearly the whole distance, we counted the houses, in all 
two hundred and twenty-two, averaging eight persons 
in each, (which is considered a low average) will make 
the whole number one thousand seven hundred and se- 
venty-six — they are a very industrious, civil and hospi- 
table people, and well deserving the fostering care of go- 
vernment, many of whom have grants of their lands 
from the Province of New Brunswick, but they have lit- 
tle confidence in the value of the grants. — Between the 
grand falls and Eel river we undertook to number the 
houses on the west bank in order to have some means of 
estimating the amount of population, but the smoke 
came upon us from the burning woods so astonishingly 
dense and suffocating, that we were frustrated in this 
design ; we however obtained some information from in- 
quiry to satisfy us that there are over two hundred and 
fifty families. These settlers are composed of half-pay 
officers, refugees and their descendants, also many Irish 
and some Scotch. We conversed with many of them to 
learn their dispositions for or against an exchange of 
territory : we found, generally, the descendants of Yan- 
kees would be pleased with it, but the half-pay officers 
and those now in the employ of government, would be 
very much averse — the first are much the most nume- 
rous. 

The land on the west side of St. John River, gene- 
rally speaking, is of an excellent quality, greatly supe- 
rior to the east side. There are large tracts of rich in- 
terval ; back of the intervals the land rises up a beauti- 
ful glacis, resembling art more than nature ; after as- 
cending the glacis you come to extensive tracts of table 
land, and further back to gentle swells of hard wood. 
This description, however, is not without some excep- 
tions. The settlers raise large supplies of wheat, oats, 



107 



barley, hay, and the best potatoes I ever met with, and 
indeed every article that can be raised in New England 
they have in abundance, with the exception of Indian 
corn, they are not, however, what we should call good 
husbandmen. 

The land on the Arcostook River is also of an excel- 
lent quality for cultivation : there are upwards of twenty 
families settled on the banks of this river ; they all do 
something in agriculture, but most of them employ their 
time principally in lumbering ; they are very anxious to 
be quieted in their possessions, but we had no authority 
relating to them. On our way to New Brunswick, we 
were informed that the Government had received in- 
structions, from home, not to grant any more permits for 
cutting timber upon the Arcostook or Madawaska Ri- 
vers, until the boundary lines are permanently establish- 
ed. This information has been confirmed to us by the 
lumberers, with this addition, that the permits given for 
the approaching winter have been recalled, which has 
disappointed a great many who had previously got their 
supplies up river with a view to lumber extensively. We 
thought, under these circumstances, it would be well to 
make some provisions, by which they might obtain tim- 
ber from our soil, and prevent their disappointment, in- 
asmuch as the supplies they have of provisions, &c. near 
our lines, would undoubtedly enable them to plunder, 
and would be so used if not permitted to cut. We ap- 
pointed, with this view, an agent at Madawaska, and 
another at Arcostook, with power to grant permits under 
certain conditions and restrictions. 

On our return to Fredericton, we called at the Sur- 
veyor General's Office for an answer to our communica- 
tion ; he was not in his office. The Clerk informed us 
that he was at his house, as his dwelling was in danger 
from the burning woods. He (the Clerk) did not know 
of any answer, but that the Suveyor General wished to 
be informed when we called, and that he would imme- 
diately inform him. We told the clerk, that if any com- 
munication was to be made, we should be found at the 
Fredericton Hotel until Thursday morning, seven o'clock, 
(this being Tuesday) — we received no reply whatever. 
Whether it was the intention of the Surveyor General to 
withhold from us the information we wished, or whether 



108 



ft was owing to the confusion the town was in, in conse- 
quence of the conflagration of a large part of the village, 
we do not know, but we have reason to believe it was 
from the first motive. The information has however been 
fully obtained from the lumberers as before mentioned. 
In conversation with the merchants of the city of St. 
John, and Fredcricton, we found they expressed gene- 
rally the opinion, that by the treaty of 1783 we obtained 
an advantage over them, which at the time was little 
understood ; and that according to the treaty, the Pro- 
vince of New Brunswick would be nearly disjoined from 
Lower Canada, which could not be submitted to ; and 
that all that territory north-east of St. John and Mada- 
waska rivers must be theirs at any rate, by purchase or 
compromise ; should a compromise be made, as has se- 
veral times been intimated, so as to surrender up our 
claim to the above territory, and receive therefore all 
west of the St. John river, as low down as Eel river and 
North Lake, we shall lose about one-half the settlers at 
Madawaska, as about that proportion are on the east 
side, and obtain a larger number on the west side, below 
the Grand Falls that are hardly worth having. As it is 
of importance to the British to have a free use of the 
Madawaska river as a highway for the transportation of 
the Mail, 8cc. we ought, at the same time, to require the 
right of a free navigation and use of the St. John river, 
for the transportation of our lumber and other commodi- 
ties, to Eastport and elsewhere, without being subject to 
duties ; and also that the several grants made to the 
Madawaska settlers be taken into account, and that com- 
pensation be made for the timber cut under the permits. 
Should a compromise upon these terms be made, we 
think it would be of mutual advantage to both nations ; 
for our present line cuts off a portion of the Aroostigouch 
river, where there is a large body of fine pine timber 
growth. 

We have recommended to Governor Farris (which has 
met his entire approbation) the following measures, to 
be adopted as expedient for the interest of all concerned, 
viz : 

That two Justices of the Peace be commissioned ; that 
a Deputy Sheriff or Constable be appointed ; and that one 
• or more Military Districts be formed at Madawaska, and 



109 

at a suitable time to be so organized that they may have 
a Representative in the Legislature of Maine ; and we 
think it would be the interest of both States, that autho- 
rity be granted to sell to the Madawaska settlers the 
land they have in possession, more than one hundred 
acres, for a reasonable consideration; and that a bushed 
winter road be cut from the head quarters at Penobscot, 
in a direction near the head of the Arostook, and conti- 
nued to Madawaska or Fish Rivers ; the distance is about 
one hundred miles ; the expence would not exceed twenty 
dollars per mile, and it would probably enhance the value 
of each township through which it goes, equal to the 
cost of the whole road, and open a country that has 
scarcely been seen. 

I herewith have the honour to transmit a sketch of 
that part of Maine, as all the maps now in use are very 
erroneous in regard to that quarter. 

I am, with the greatest respect, 

Your Excellency's most obedient, 

and very humble Servant, 

GEO. W. COFFIN, 
Land Agent ' 

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Comparison of the Increase of British Tonnage em 
Great Britain and the United States, 



id 



YEARS. 


WHOLE TONNAGE. 


T( 

>] 


1772. 


Average of the Amount! 

cleared outwards on the V 834,066 
3 preceding years (1) .) 


Mediun 
tered 
Aver 
cedin 
Tonn 
whicl 

i. e.(: 


1789. 


The like Average(l) .... 1,376,841 


The like 


1799. 


Like Average on 10 years(l) 1,322,238 


Medium 

yearsi 


1808. 
The Colonial re- 
turns from 1808 
to 1814 are lost. 


The like on 9 years(l) . . . 1,433,691 




1824. 

Comparison of the "\ 
several Amounts f 
in 1824 with ( 
1772. J 


The like on 10 years(l) . . . 2,229,540 
167 per cent. Increase. 


Average 
cleare ( 

A 


Comparison of the~\ 
proportion of the / 
parts to thewhole > 
in 1824 with | 
1772. J 




Ts 
«j 


1825. 


Whole Amount cleared(l) . 2,262,458 


Whole I 

] 



JN1ES. 



46,106 
34,196 

61,735 



!77,149 



11,332 



(1) Moreau's Table. 



(2) Report of the Lo: 



(No. VI.) 



Comparison of the Increase of British Tonnage employed annually, between Great Britain and all Parts of the World, (including lu Ireland), 
Great Britain and the United States, the West Indies, and the North American Colonies, respectively from the year 1772. 



TO THE UNITED STATES. 



NORTH AMERICAN COI.ONUN 



Average of the Amount 1 
cleared outwards on the J 
3 preceding years(l) . ) 



Average of the 3 pre- 
ceding years. Whole 
Tonnage 86,745. Of 
which « were British, 
i.e-(2) 



178!). 
1799. 



The like Average(l) .... 1,376,841 
Like Average on 10 years(l) 1,322,238 



The like Medium & Average(2) 52,595 



redium and Average 
yearB(3) 



1808. 
Tho Colonial re- 
irns from 1808 
1814 are lost, 

1824. 

C.iinliiinsiinol'llu'^ 



I'll,' like >m 9 ycars(l) 



The like on 111 years[l) . 
167 per cent. Inc 



Average of the Amounl 
' ared on 10 years(4) . 
21 per cent. Decrea. 



Medium and j 



Like Medium and Average (2) 
Like on 10 years (3) 



Average of the Amount ) 
" ared on 2 years(4) . . J 



Like Medium and Average (2) 46,106 
Like on 10 years (3) 34,196 

m 9 years (4) 61,735 



Medium and Average on ) 

10 years (4) f 277 ' 149 

2370 per cent. Increase. 



Coi!i|>iinsi>n,iftlii-' 



u kola Imounl ole»red(l) . 3,263,468 



Whole Amount cleared (4) . . 43,139 



lyj per cent. Increaj 



Whole Amount cleared (4) . . 411,332 



(I) Morcau's Table. 



('.') Report of the Lords uf Tnulc in 1>1. 



(1) Official Itelum?. 



Comparison of the whole Exports, and th 

Colonk 



an 



' UNITED STATES. 



EXPORTS, 



17G9. 



Whole amount («) 

1825. 



£2,852,441 



TO 



Whole amount 



Whole amount (b) Dol. £ 99,535,388 
Sterling . . 22,395,463 

Increase . . 685 per cent. 



Whole amouni 
21( 



(a) Macpherson's Annals. Pitkin's Statistics. (b 
tonnage was 930,501. This account includes Foreign as we 
imports from England are there transposed. The account 
of tonnage. There may have been one vessel. (,/') Con- 
have no account of the ships built in that Colony. 
I ave added, (or the exports of the Out-Bays, the same 
returns of quantity and value for 1324. We regret thatv* 
we have no returns, nor any certain information. (I) O 
by their proportion in the tonnage of Nova Scotia. (n) 
October, (o) Official returns for 1824. (p)Wehavej 



7,628 
10,458 

7,324 



25,410 tons. 



10,166 men. 

4,580 

4,596 
12,161 



31,503 



In 1823 their 
the exports and 
ave no account 
fficial accounts. 
To which we 
(I) Offici.d 
this Colony 
ten is computed 
i:ar are onlv to 



P ro Of 



Ill 



These Tables, it is hoped, will convey a favourable 
idea of the difference between Colonial and Foreign 
Trade, and of the increase and resources, of our Pro- 
vinces in North America. The imperfection and irre- 
gularity observable in our Accounts is owing to want of 
information, which we have not the time, or means, to 
acquire. As we have reckoned the Ships built among 
Exports, it is necessary to remark, that most of these are 
intended for the English market, as remittances for 
goods, quite as much, as the Timber with which they 
are laden ; and as this may not be the case w T ith all, 
and it is difficult to say with how many, the fairer way 
appeared to be, to put down in the other side of the 
Account, the Shipping built in 69, though these were 
probably all for domestic trade ; this can make little 
difference in the comparison, as our object is to measure, 
not the value of Exports, with the United States, but 
the relative increase. On both sides, the vessels are 
computed at the same price, £10. per ton, their worth, 
or their cost, in the Colonies, last year. In strictness, 
perhaps, the United States should be charged, in 69, 
with part of 20,000 tons, the amount built by them in 
that year, most of which were then merely a remittance 
to England, as now in the Colonies. This would con- 
siderably diminish the ratio of their increase, as their 
situation now must have nearly deprived them of such 
an export. 

The year of 1825 was indeed a year of over- trading in 
the Colonies, as well as elsewhere ; but no less so in the 
United States. The extraordinary rise of their cotton 
here, as well as other causes, made their exports for that 
year to exceed their imports by more than three mil- 
lions, (an event perhaps unprecedented in their history,) 
and exceed their exports in 1822, by seven-and-twenty 
millions, of dollars. In 1769 the proportion of foreign 
produce in their exports was about l-30th. During the 
last twenty years it has frequently formed a half, some- 
times more, and seldom less than a third or fourth part. 

The account of Tonnage cleared from the Colonies, 
includes Foreign Vessels, but is strictly exclusive of the 
coasting Trade, Fisheries, or Trade of the Lakes. The 
Americans calculate the average value of their freights, 
out and home, in foreign Trade, at 50, or even 70 dol- 



(No. VII.) 

( 'ompariton of th whole Exports, and tlie whole Tonnage in foreign Trade cleared, from the United States, and the British North American 
Colonies, respectively, in the Years 1769 and 1825. 



UNITED STATES. 


BRITISH COLONIES. 


EXPORTS. 

1769. 

\\ hole amount («) £2,858,441 
1825. 


TONNAGE. 
Whole amount («) 35 1 ,B64 tons. 

w link amomf (i 1,11 i. p. 

a 16 per cent. 


EXPORTS. 

1769. 

Shipping built, 60 tons ... 600 
li/) Newfoundland. Articles .... 150,953 
Shipping built, 30 tons . , . 300 

(d) Nova Scotia, 1 

New Brunswick. \ Articles . 15,435 
Prince Edward's Is]. ) 

Shipping built, 110 tons . . 1,100 

(e) Hudson's Bay 7,087 

Whole amount .... £235,878 

1825. 

(0 Canada. Articles £965,843 

Shipping built. 22.636 tons 226.360 
(g) Newfoundland. Articles .... 764,677 

Shipping Built, 
(*) Nova Scotia. Articles 640,220 

Shipping built. 17.000 tons 170,000 
(,') New Brunswick. Articles . . . 462.043 

Shipping built, 16. IKS tuns 164,880 
1<-1 I'rinee Kdward's Island. Articles 

Shipping built. 

Whole amount currency £3.5(10.(163 
Sterling . . £3,150,057 

Increase . . . 1280 per cent. 


TONNAGE, 
(d) Canada 7,638 

(<l) Nova Scotia, ~t 

New Brunswick, > 7,334 
Prince Edward's Island, ) 

Whole amount .... 35,410 tons. 

(/) Canada .... 235,8S)6 Ions 10.166 men 
(ml Newfoundland 90,000 4,580 
(,i) Nov a Scotia . . 89,723 4.596 
(o) New Brunswick 274,253 12,161 
(*) Prince Ed.'s Is. 
.,/■' Ilmlson's Bay 

\\ hole amount . (,89,873 31,503 


Whoh amount (6) Dol. £99,585,888 
Sterling . . aa.395.4B3 

Increase . . B85 per cent. 


689,873 tons. 
3610 per cent. 



112 



lars a ton. {Seybert, 281.) As more vessels return to 
the Colonies in ballast, if we value their voyages at half 
that sum, or even at £5. a ton, and take the tonnage 
cleared last year at 700,000, (and were the returns com- 
plete it would be found no less,) the freights of that 
Country must have been £3,500,000. 

The Map, which has been added, of the Boundary 
Line, is of course not intended as any evidence of our 
claim, but only to convey a clearer idea of the question. 



THE END, 



LONDON : 

IROTSON AND PALMER, PRINTERS, SAVOY STRrTT. 



